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After the death of ETHELBERT, EDWIN, King of Northumbria, who was such a good king that it was said awoman or child might openly carry a purse of gold, in his reign, without fear, allowe

A Child's History of England

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A Child's History of England by Charles Dickens Scanned and Proofed by David Price, email

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A Child's History of England

CHAPTER I

- ANCIENT ENGLAND AND THE ROMANS

IF you look at a Map of the World, you will see, in the left-hand upper corner of the Eastern Hemisphere, twoIslands lying in the sea They are England and Scotland, and Ireland England and Scotland form the greater

part of these Islands Ireland is the next in size The little neighbouring islands, which are so small upon theMap as to be mere dots, are chiefly little bits of Scotland, - broken off, I dare say, in the course of a greatlength of time, by the power of the restless water.

In the old days, a long, long while ago, before Our Saviour was born on earth and lay asleep in a manger,these Islands were in the same place, and the stormy sea roared round them, just as it roars now But the seawas not alive, then, with great ships and brave sailors, sailing to and from all parts of the world It was verylonely The Islands lay solitary, in the great expanse of water The foaming waves dashed against their cliffs,and the bleak winds blew over their forests; but the winds and waves brought no adventurers to land upon theIslands, and the savage Islanders knew nothing of the rest of the world, and the rest of the world knew nothing

of them

It is supposed that the Phoenicians, who were an ancient people, famous for carrying on trade, came in ships

to these Islands, and found that they produced tin and lead; both very useful things, as you know, and bothproduced to this very hour upon the sea-coast The most celebrated tin mines in Cornwall are, still, close to thesea One of them, which I have seen, is so close to it that it is hollowed out underneath the ocean; and theminers say, that in stormy weather, when they are at work down in that deep place, they can hear the noise ofthe waves thundering above their heads So, the Phoenicians, coasting about the Islands, would come, withoutmuch difficulty, to where the tin and lead were

The Phoenicians traded with the Islanders for these metals, and gave the Islanders some other useful things inexchange The Islanders were, at first, poor savages, going almost naked, or only dressed in the rough skins ofbeasts, and staining their bodies, as other savages do, with coloured earths and the juices of plants But thePhoenicians, sailing over to the opposite coasts of France and Belgium, and saying to the people there, 'Wehave been to those white cliffs across the water, which you can see in fine weather, and from that country,which is called BRITAIN, we bring this tin and lead,' tempted some of the French and Belgians to come overalso These people settled themselves on the south coast of England, which is now called Kent; and, althoughthey were a rough people too, they taught the savage Britons some useful arts, and improved that part of theIslands It is probable that other people came over from Spain to Ireland, and settled there

Thus, by little and little, strangers became mixed with the Islanders, and the savage Britons grew into a wild,bold people; almost savage, still, especially in the interior of the country away from the sea where the foreignsettlers seldom went; but hardy, brave, and strong

The whole country was covered with forests, and swamps The greater part of it was very misty and cold.There were no roads, no bridges, no streets, no houses that you would think deserving of the name A townwas nothing but a collection of straw-covered huts, hidden in a thick wood, with a ditch all round, and a lowwall, made of mud, or the trunks of trees placed one upon another The people planted little or no corn, butlived upon the flesh of their flocks and cattle They made no coins, but used metal rings for money They wereclever in basket-work, as savage people often are; and they could make a coarse kind of cloth, and some verybad earthenware But in building fortresses they were much more clever

They made boats of basket-work, covered with the skins of animals, but seldom, if ever, ventured far from theshore They made swords, of copper mixed with tin; but, these swords were of an awkward shape, and so softthat a heavy blow would bend one They made light shields, short pointed daggers, and spears - which theyjerked back after they had thrown them at an enemy, by a long strip of leather fastened to the stem Thebutt-end was a rattle, to frighten an enemy's horse The ancient Britons, being divided into as many as thirty orforty tribes, each commanded by its own little king, were constantly fighting with one another, as savagepeople usually do; and they always fought with these weapons

They were very fond of horses The standard of Kent was the picture of a white horse They could break them

in and manage them wonderfully well Indeed, the horses (of which they had an abundance, though they were

rather small) were so well taught in those days, that they can scarcely be said to have improved since; thoughthe men are so much wiser They understood, and obeyed, every word of command; and would stand still bythemselves, in all the din and noise of battle, while their masters went to fight on foot The Britons could nothave succeeded in their most remarkable art, without the aid of these sensible and trusty animals The art Imean, is the construction and management of war-chariots or cars, for which they have ever been celebrated

in history Each of the best sort of these chariots, not quite breast high in front, and open at the back,

contained one man to drive, and two or three others to fight - all standing up The horses who drew them were

so well trained, that they would tear, at full gallop, over the most stony ways, and even through the woods;dashing down their masters' enemies beneath their hoofs, and cutting them to pieces with the blades of

swords, or scythes, which were fastened to the wheels, and stretched out beyond the car on each side, for thatcruel purpose In a moment, while at full speed, the horses would stop, at the driver's command The menwithin would leap out, deal blows about them with their swords like hail, leap on the horses, on the pole,spring back into the chariots anyhow; and, as soon as they were safe, the horses tore away again

The Britons had a strange and terrible religion, called the Religion of the Druids It seems to have been

brought over, in very early times indeed, from the opposite country of France, anciently called Gaul, and tohave mixed up the worship of the Serpent, and of the Sun and Moon, with the worship of some of the HeathenGods and Goddesses Most of its ceremonies were kept secret by the priests, the Druids, who pretended to beenchanters, and who carried magicians' wands, and wore, each of them, about his neck, what he told theignorant people was a Serpent's egg in a golden case But it is certain that the Druidical ceremonies includedthe sacrifice of human victims, the torture of some suspected criminals, and, on particular occasions, even theburning alive, in immense wicker cages, of a number of men and animals together The Druid Priests hadsome kind of veneration for the Oak, and for the mistletoe - the same plant that we hang up in houses atChristmas Time now - when its white berries grew upon the Oak They met together in dark woods, whichthey called Sacred Groves; and there they instructed, in their mysterious arts, young men who came to them aspupils, and who sometimes stayed with them as long as twenty years

These Druids built great Temples and altars, open to the sky, fragments of some of which are yet remaining.Stonehenge, on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire, is the most extraordinary of these Three curious stones, calledKits Coty House, on Bluebell Hill, near Maidstone, in Kent, form another We know, from examination of thegreat blocks of which such buildings are made, that they could not have been raised without the aid of someingenious machines, which are common now, but which the ancient Britons certainly did not use in makingtheir own uncomfortable houses I should not wonder if the Druids, and their pupils who stayed with themtwenty years, knowing more than the rest of the Britons, kept the people out of sight while they made thesebuildings, and then pretended that they built them by magic Perhaps they had a hand in the fortresses too; atall events, as they were very powerful, and very much believed in, and as they made and executed the laws,and paid no taxes, I don't wonder that they liked their trade And, as they persuaded the people the moreDruids there were, the better off the people would be, I don't wonder that there were a good many of them.But it is pleasant to think that there are no Druids, NOW, who go on in that way, and pretend to carry

Enchanters' Wands and Serpents' Eggs - and of course there is nothing of the kind, anywhere

Such was the improved condition of the ancient Britons, fifty-five years before the birth of Our Saviour, whenthe Romans, under their great General, Julius Caesar, were masters of all the rest of the known world JuliusCaesar had then just conquered Gaul; and hearing, in Gaul, a good deal about the opposite Island with thewhite cliffs, and about the bravery of the Britons who inhabited it - some of whom had been fetched over tohelp the Gauls in the war against him - he resolved, as he was so near, to come and conquer Britain next

So, Julius Caesar came sailing over to this Island of ours, with eighty vessels and twelve thousand men And

he came from the French coast between Calais and Boulogne, 'because thence was the shortest passage intoBritain;' just for the same reason as our steam-boats now take the same track, every day He expected toconquer Britain easily: but it was not such easy work as he supposed - for the bold Britons fought mostbravely; and, what with not having his horse-soldiers with him (for they had been driven back by a storm),

and what with having some of his vessels dashed to pieces by a high tide after they were drawn ashore, he rangreat risk of being totally defeated However, for once that the bold Britons beat him, he beat them twice;though not so soundly but that he was very glad to accept their proposals of peace, and go away.

But, in the spring of the next year, he came back; this time, with eight hundred vessels and thirty thousandmen The British tribes chose, as their general-in-chief, a Briton, whom the Romans in their Latin languagecalled CASSIVELLAUNUS, but whose British name is supposed to have been CASWALLON A bravegeneral he was, and well he and his soldiers fought the Roman army! So well, that whenever in that war theRoman soldiers saw a great cloud of dust, and heard the rattle of the rapid British chariots, they trembled intheir hearts Besides a number of smaller battles, there was a battle fought near Canterbury, in Kent; there was

a battle fought near Chertsey, in Surrey; there was a battle fought near a marshy little town in a wood, thecapital of that part of Britain which belonged to CASSIVELLAUNUS, and which was probably near what isnow Saint Albans, in Hertfordshire However, brave CASSIVELLAUNUS had the worst of it, on the whole;though he and his men always fought like lions As the other British chiefs were jealous of him, and werealways quarrelling with him, and with one another, he gave up, and proposed peace Julius Caesar was veryglad to grant peace easily, and to go away again with all his remaining ships and men He had expected to findpearls in Britain, and he may have found a few for anything I know; but, at all events, he found deliciousoysters, and I am sure he found tough Britons - of whom, I dare say, he made the same complaint as NapoleonBonaparte the great French General did, eighteen hundred years afterwards, when he said they were suchunreasonable fellows that they never knew when they were beaten They never DID know, I believe, andnever will

Nearly a hundred years passed on, and all that time, there was peace in Britain The Britons improved theirtowns and mode of life: became more civilised, travelled, and learnt a great deal from the Gauls and Romans

At last, the Roman Emperor, Claudius, sent AULUS PLAUTIUS, a skilful general, with a mighty force, tosubdue the Island, and shortly afterwards arrived himself They did little; and OSTORIUS SCAPULA,

another general, came Some of the British Chiefs of Tribes submitted Others resolved to fight to the death

Of these brave men, the bravest was CARACTACUS, or CARADOC, who gave battle to the Romans, withhis army, among the mountains of North Wales 'This day,' said he to his soldiers, 'decides the fate of Britain!Your liberty, or your eternal slavery, dates from this hour Remember your brave ancestors, who drove thegreat Caesar himself across the sea!' On hearing these words, his men, with a great shout, rushed upon theRomans But the strong Roman swords and armour were too much for the weaker British weapons in closeconflict The Britons lost the day The wife and daughter of the brave CARACTACUS were taken prisoners;his brothers delivered themselves up; he himself was betrayed into the hands of the Romans by his false andbase stepmother: and they carried him, and all his family, in triumph to Rome

But a great man will be great in misfortune, great in prison, great in chains His noble air, and dignifiedendurance of distress, so touched the Roman people who thronged the streets to see him, that he and hisfamily were restored to freedom No one knows whether his great heart broke, and he died in Rome, orwhether he ever returned to his own dear country English oaks have grown up from acorns, and witheredaway, when they were hundreds of years old - and other oaks have sprung up in their places, and died too,very aged - since the rest of the history of the brave CARACTACUS was forgotten

Still, the Britons WOULD NOT yield They rose again and again, and died by thousands, sword in hand Theyrose, on every possible occasion SUETONIUS, another Roman general, came, and stormed the Island ofAnglesey (then called MONA), which was supposed to be sacred, and he burnt the Druids in their own wickercages, by their own fires But, even while he was in Britain, with his victorious troops, the BRITONS rose.Because BOADICEA, a British queen, the widow of the King of the Norfolk and Suffolk people, resisted theplundering of her property by the Romans who were settled in England, she was scourged, by order of

CATUS a Roman officer; and her two daughters were shamefully insulted in her presence, and her husband'srelations were made slaves To avenge this injury, the Britons rose, with all their might and rage They droveCATUS into Gaul; they laid the Roman possessions waste; they forced the Romans out of London, then a

poor little town, but a trading place; they hanged, burnt, crucified, and slew by the sword, seventy thousandRomans in a few days SUETONIUS strengthened his army, and advanced to give them battle They

strengthened their army, and desperately attacked his, on the field where it was strongly posted Before thefirst charge of the Britons was made, BOADICEA, in a war-chariot, with her fair hair streaming in the wind,and her injured daughters lying at her feet, drove among the troops, and cried to them for vengeance on theiroppressors, the licentious Romans The Britons fought to the last; but they were vanquished with great

slaughter, and the unhappy queen took poison

Still, the spirit of the Britons was not broken When SUETONIUS left the country, they fell upon his troops,and retook the Island of Anglesey AGRICOLA came, fifteen or twenty years afterwards, and retook it oncemore, and devoted seven years to subduing the country, especially that part of it which is now called

SCOTLAND; but, its people, the Caledonians, resisted him at every inch of ground They fought the bloodiestbattles with him; they killed their very wives and children, to prevent his making prisoners of them; they fell,fighting, in such great numbers that certain hills in Scotland are yet supposed to be vast heaps of stones piled

up above their graves HADRIAN came, thirty years afterwards, and still they resisted him SEVERUS came,nearly a hundred years afterwards, and they worried his great army like dogs, and rejoiced to see them die, bythousands, in the bogs and swamps CARACALLA, the son and successor of SEVERUS, did the most toconquer them, for a time; but not by force of arms He knew how little that would do He yielded up a quantity

of land to the Caledonians, and gave the Britons the same privileges as the Romans possessed There waspeace, after this, for seventy years

Then new enemies arose They were the Saxons, a fierce, sea-faring people from the countries to the North ofthe Rhine, the great river of Germany on the banks of which the best grapes grow to make the German wine.They began to come, in pirate ships, to the sea- coast of Gaul and Britain, and to plunder them They wererepulsed by CARAUSIUS, a native either of Belgium or of Britain, who was appointed by the Romans to thecommand, and under whom the Britons first began to fight upon the sea But, after this time, they renewedtheir ravages A few years more, and the Scots (which was then the name for the people of Ireland), and thePicts, a northern people, began to make frequent plundering incursions into the South of Britain All theseattacks were repeated, at intervals, during two hundred years, and through a long succession of Roman

Emperors and chiefs; during all which length of time, the Britons rose against the Romans, over and overagain At last, in the days of the Roman HONORIUS, when the Roman power all over the world was fastdeclining, and when Rome wanted all her soldiers at home, the Romans abandoned all hope of conqueringBritain, and went away And still, at last, as at first, the Britons rose against them, in their old brave manner;for, a very little while before, they had turned away the Roman magistrates, and declared themselves anindependent people

Five hundred years had passed, since Julius Caesar's first invasion of the Island, when the Romans departedfrom it for ever In the course of that time, although they had been the cause of terrible fighting and

bloodshed, they had done much to improve the condition of the Britons They had made great military roads;they had built forts; they had taught them how to dress, and arm themselves, much better than they had everknown how to do before; they had refined the whole British way of living AGRICOLA had built a great wall

of earth, more than seventy miles long, extending from Newcastle to beyond Carlisle, for the purpose ofkeeping out the Picts and Scots; HADRIAN had strengthened it; SEVERUS, finding it much in want of repair,had built it afresh of stone

Above all, it was in the Roman time, and by means of Roman ships, that the Christian Religion was firstbrought into Britain, and its people first taught the great lesson that, to be good in the sight of GOD, they mustlove their neighbours as themselves, and do unto others as they would be done by The Druids declared that itwas very wicked to believe in any such thing, and cursed all the people who did believe it, very heartily But,when the people found that they were none the better for the blessings of the Druids, and none the worse forthe curses of the Druids, but, that the sun shone and the rain fell without consulting the Druids at all, they justbegan to think that the Druids were mere men, and that it signified very little whether they cursed or blessed

After which, the pupils of the Druids fell off greatly in numbers, and the Druids took to other trades.

Thus I have come to the end of the Roman time in England It is but little that is known of those five hundredyears; but some remains of them are still found Often, when labourers are digging up the ground, to makefoundations for houses or churches, they light on rusty money that once belonged to the Romans Fragments

of plates from which they ate, of goblets from which they drank, and of pavement on which they trod, arediscovered among the earth that is broken by the plough, or the dust that is crumbled by the gardener's spade.Wells that the Romans sunk, still yield water; roads that the Romans made, form part of our highways Insome old battle-fields, British spear-heads and Roman armour have been found, mingled together in decay, asthey fell in the thick pressure of the fight Traces of Roman camps overgrown with grass, and of mounds thatare the burial-places of heaps of Britons, are to be seen in almost all parts of the country Across the bleakmoors of Northumberland, the wall of SEVERUS, overrun with moss and weeds, still stretches, a strong ruin;and the shepherds and their dogs lie sleeping on it in the summer weather On Salisbury Plain, Stonehenge yetstands: a monument of the earlier time when the Roman name was unknown in Britain, and when the Druids,with their best magic wands, could not have written it in the sands of the wild sea-shore

CHAPTER II

- ANCIENT ENGLAND UNDER THE EARLY SAXONS

THE Romans had scarcely gone away from Britain, when the Britons began to wish they had never left it For,the Romans being gone, and the Britons being much reduced in numbers by their long wars, the Picts andScots came pouring in, over the broken and unguarded wall of SEVERUS, in swarms They plundered therichest towns, and killed the people; and came back so often for more booty and more slaughter, that theunfortunate Britons lived a life of terror As if the Picts and Scots were not bad enough on land, the Saxonsattacked the islanders by sea; and, as if something more were still wanting to make them miserable, theyquarrelled bitterly among themselves as to what prayers they ought to say, and how they ought to say them.The priests, being very angry with one another on these questions, cursed one another in the heartiest manner;and (uncommonly like the old Druids) cursed all the people whom they could not persuade So, altogether, theBritons were very badly off, you may believe

They were in such distress, in short, that they sent a letter to Rome entreating help - which they called theGroans of the Britons; and in which they said, 'The barbarians chase us into the sea, the sea throws us backupon the barbarians, and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword, or perishing by thewaves.' But, the Romans could not help them, even if they were so inclined; for they had enough to do todefend themselves against their own enemies, who were then very fierce and strong At last, the Britons,unable to bear their hard condition any longer, resolved to make peace with the Saxons, and to invite theSaxons to come into their country, and help them to keep out the Picts and Scots

It was a British Prince named VORTIGERN who took this resolution, and who made a treaty of friendshipwith HENGIST and HORSA, two Saxon chiefs Both of these names, in the old Saxon language, signifyHorse; for the Saxons, like many other nations in a rough state, were fond of giving men the names of

animals, as Horse, Wolf, Bear, Hound The Indians of North America, - a very inferior people to the Saxons,though - do the same to this day

HENGIST and HORSA drove out the Picts and Scots; and VORTIGERN, being grateful to them for thatservice, made no opposition to their settling themselves in that part of England which is called the Isle ofThanet, or to their inviting over more of their countrymen to join them But HENGIST had a beautiful

daughter named ROWENA; and when, at a feast, she filled a golden goblet to the brim with wine, and gave it

to VORTIGERN, saying in a sweet voice, 'Dear King, thy health!' the King fell in love with her My opinion

is, that the cunning HENGIST meant him to do so, in order that the Saxons might have greater influence with

him; and that the fair ROWENA came to that feast, golden goblet and all, on purpose.

At any rate, they were married; and, long afterwards, whenever the King was angry with the Saxons, orjealous of their encroachments, ROWENA would put her beautiful arms round his neck, and softly say, 'DearKing, they are my people! Be favourable to them, as you loved that Saxon girl who gave you the goldengoblet of wine at the feast!' And, really, I don't see how the King could help himself

Ah! We must all die! In the course of years, VORTIGERN died - he was dethroned, and put in prison, first, I

am afraid; and ROWENA died; and generations of Saxons and Britons died; and events that happened during

a long, long time, would have been quite forgotten but for the tales and songs of the old Bards, who used to goabout from feast to feast, with their white beards, recounting the deeds of their forefathers Among the

histories of which they sang and talked, there was a famous one, concerning the bravery and virtues of KINGARTHUR, supposed to have been a British Prince in those old times But, whether such a person really lived,

or whether there were several persons whose histories came to be confused together under that one name, orwhether all about him was invention, no one knows

I will tell you, shortly, what is most interesting in the early Saxon times, as they are described in these songsand stories of the Bards

In, and long after, the days of VORTIGERN, fresh bodies of Saxons, under various chiefs, came pouring intoBritain One body, conquering the Britons in the East, and settling there, called their kingdom Essex; anotherbody settled in the West, and called their kingdom Wessex; the Northfolk, or Norfolk people, establishedthemselves in one place; the Southfolk, or Suffolk people, established themselves in another; and graduallyseven kingdoms or states arose in England, which were called the Saxon Heptarchy The poor Britons, fallingback before these crowds of fighting men whom they had innocently invited over as friends, retired intoWales and the adjacent country; into Devonshire, and into Cornwall Those parts of England long remainedunconquered And in Cornwall now - where the sea-coast is very gloomy, steep, and rugged - where, in thedark winter-time, ships have often been wrecked close to the land, and every soul on board has perished -where the winds and waves howl drearily and split the solid rocks into arches and caverns - there are veryancient ruins, which the people call the ruins of KING ARTHUR'S Castle

Kent is the most famous of the seven Saxon kingdoms, because the Christian religion was preached to theSaxons there (who domineered over the Britons too much, to care for what THEY said about their religion, oranything else) by AUGUSTINE, a monk from Rome KING ETHELBERT, of Kent, was soon converted; andthe moment he said he was a Christian, his courtiers all said THEY were Christians; after which, ten thousand

of his subjects said they were Christians too AUGUSTINE built a little church, close to this King's palace, onthe ground now occupied by the beautiful cathedral of Canterbury SEBERT, the King's nephew, built on amuddy marshy place near London, where there had been a temple to Apollo, a church dedicated to SaintPeter, which is now Westminster Abbey And, in London itself, on the foundation of a temple to Diana, hebuilt another little church which has risen up, since that old time, to be Saint Paul's

After the death of ETHELBERT, EDWIN, King of Northumbria, who was such a good king that it was said awoman or child might openly carry a purse of gold, in his reign, without fear, allowed his child to be baptised,and held a great council to consider whether he and his people should all be Christians or not It was decidedthat they should be COIFI, the chief priest of the old religion, made a great speech on the occasion In thisdiscourse, he told the people that he had found out the old gods to be impostors 'I am quite satisfied of it,' hesaid 'Look at me! I have been serving them all my life, and they have done nothing for me; whereas, if theyhad been really powerful, they could not have decently done less, in return for all I have done for them, thanmake my fortune As they have never made my fortune, I am quite convinced they are impostors!' When thissingular priest had finished speaking, he hastily armed himself with sword and lance, mounted a war-horse,rode at a furious gallop in sight of all the people to the temple, and flung his lance against it as an insult Fromthat time, the Christian religion spread itself among the Saxons, and became their faith

The next very famous prince was EGBERT He lived about a hundred and fifty years afterwards, and claimed

to have a better right to the throne of Wessex than BEORTRIC, another Saxon prince who was at the head ofthat kingdom, and who married EDBURGA, the daughter of OFFA, king of another of the seven kingdoms.This QUEEN EDBURGA was a handsome murderess, who poisoned people when they offended her Oneday, she mixed a cup of poison for a certain noble belonging to the court; but her husband drank of it too, bymistake, and died Upon this, the people revolted, in great crowds; and running to the palace, and thundering

at the gates, cried, 'Down with the wicked queen, who poisons men!' They drove her out of the country, andabolished the title she had disgraced When years had passed away, some travellers came home from Italy,and said that in the town of Pavia they had seen a ragged beggar- woman, who had once been handsome, butwas then shrivelled, bent, and yellow, wandering about the streets, crying for bread; and that this

beggar-woman was the poisoning English queen It was, indeed, EDBURGA; and so she died, without ashelter for her wretched head

EGBERT, not considering himself safe in England, in consequence of his having claimed the crown of

Wessex (for he thought his rival might take him prisoner and put him to death), sought refuge at the court ofCHARLEMAGNE, King of France On the death of BEORTRIC, so unhappily poisoned by mistake,

EGBERT came back to Britain; succeeded to the throne of Wessex; conquered some of the other monarchs ofthe seven kingdoms; added their territories to his own; and, for the first time, called the country over which heruled, ENGLAND

And now, new enemies arose, who, for a long time, troubled England sorely These were the Northmen, thepeople of Denmark and Norway, whom the English called the Danes They were a warlike people, quite athome upon the sea; not Christians; very daring and cruel They came over in ships, and plundered and burnedwheresoever they landed Once, they beat EGBERT in battle Once, EGBERT beat them But, they cared nomore for being beaten than the English themselves In the four following short reigns, of ETHELWULF, andhis sons, ETHELBALD, ETHELBERT, and ETHELRED, they came back, over and over again, burning andplundering, and laying England waste In the last-mentioned reign, they seized EDMUND, King of EastEngland, and bound him to a tree Then, they proposed to him that he should change his religion; but he,being a good Christian, steadily refused Upon that, they beat him, made cowardly jests upon him, all

defenceless as he was, shot arrows at him, and, finally, struck off his head It is impossible to say whose headthey might have struck off next, but for the death of KING ETHELRED from a wound he had received infighting against them, and the succession to his throne of the best and wisest king that ever lived in England

CHAPTER III

- ENGLAND UNDER THE GOOD SAXON, ALFRED

ALFRED THE GREAT was a young man, three-and-twenty years of age, when he became king Twice in hischildhood, he had been taken to Rome, where the Saxon nobles were in the habit of going on journeys whichthey supposed to be religious; and, once, he had stayed for some time in Paris Learning, however, was solittle cared for, then, that at twelve years old he had not been taught to read; although, of the sons of KINGETHELWULF, he, the youngest, was the favourite But he had - as most men who grow up to be great andgood are generally found to have had - an excellent mother; and, one day, this lady, whose name was

OSBURGA, happened, as she was sitting among her sons, to read a book of Saxon poetry The art of printingwas not known until long and long after that period, and the book, which was written, was what is called'illuminated,' with beautiful bright letters, richly painted The brothers admiring it very much, their mothersaid, 'I will give it to that one of you four princes who first learns to read.' ALFRED sought out a tutor thatvery day, applied himself to learn with great diligence, and soon won the book He was proud of it, all his life

This great king, in the first year of his reign, fought nine battles with the Danes He made some treaties withthem too, by which the false Danes swore they would quit the country They pretended to consider that they

had taken a very solemn oath, in swearing this upon the holy bracelets that they wore, and which were alwaysburied with them when they died; but they cared little for it, for they thought nothing of breaking oaths andtreaties too, as soon as it suited their purpose, and coming back again to fight, plunder, and burn, as usual Onefatal winter, in the fourth year of KING ALFRED'S reign, they spread themselves in great numbers over thewhole of England; and so dispersed and routed the King's soldiers that the King was left alone, and wasobliged to disguise himself as a common peasant, and to take refuge in the cottage of one of his cowherds whodid not know his face.

Here, KING ALFRED, while the Danes sought him far and near, was left alone one day, by the cowherd'swife, to watch some cakes which she put to bake upon the hearth But, being at work upon his bow andarrows, with which he hoped to punish the false Danes when a brighter time should come, and thinking deeply

of his poor unhappy subjects whom the Danes chased through the land, his noble mind forgot the cakes, andthey were burnt 'What!' said the cowherd's wife, who scolded him well when she came back, and little

thought she was scolding the King, 'you will be ready enough to eat them by-and-by, and yet you cannotwatch them, idle dog?'

At length, the Devonshire men made head against a new host of Danes who landed on their coast; killed theirchief, and captured their flag; on which was represented the likeness of a Raven - a very fit bird for a thievisharmy like that, I think The loss of their standard troubled the Danes greatly, for they believed it to be

enchanted - woven by the three daughters of one father in a single afternoon - and they had a story amongthemselves that when they were victorious in battle, the Raven stretched his wings and seemed to fly; and thatwhen they were defeated, he would droop He had good reason to droop, now, if he could have done anythinghalf so sensible; for, KING ALFRED joined the Devonshire men; made a camp with them on a piece of firmground in the midst of a bog in Somersetshire; and prepared for a great attempt for vengeance on the Danes,and the deliverance of his oppressed people

But, first, as it was important to know how numerous those pestilent Danes were, and how they were fortified,KING ALFRED, being a good musician, disguised himself as a glee-man or minstrel, and went, with his harp,

to the Danish camp He played and sang in the very tent of GUTHRUM the Danish leader, and entertained theDanes as they caroused While he seemed to think of nothing but his music, he was watchful of their tents,their arms, their discipline, everything that he desired to know And right soon did this great king entertainthem to a different tune; for, summoning all his true followers to meet him at an appointed place, where theyreceived him with joyful shouts and tears, as the monarch whom many of them had given up for lost or dead,

he put himself at their head, marched on the Danish camp, defeated the Danes with great slaughter, andbesieged them for fourteen days to prevent their escape But, being as merciful as he was good and brave, hethen, instead of killing them, proposed peace: on condition that they should altogether depart from that

Western part of England, and settle in the East; and that GUTHRUM should become a Christian, in

remembrance of the Divine religion which now taught his conqueror, the noble ALFRED, to forgive theenemy who had so often injured him This, GUTHRUM did At his baptism, KING ALFRED was his

godfather And GUTHRUM was an honourable chief who well deserved that clemency; for, ever afterwards

he was loyal and faithful to the king The Danes under him were faithful too They plundered and burned nomore, but worked like honest men They ploughed, and sowed, and reaped, and led good honest English lives.And I hope the children of those Danes played, many a time, with Saxon children in the sunny fields; and thatDanish young men fell in love with Saxon girls, and married them; and that English travellers, benighted atthe doors of Danish cottages, often went in for shelter until morning; and that Danes and Saxons sat by the redfire, friends, talking of KING ALFRED THE GREAT

All the Danes were not like these under GUTHRUM; for, after some years, more of them came over, in theold plundering and burning way - among them a fierce pirate of the name of HASTINGS, who had the

boldness to sail up the Thames to Gravesend, with eighty ships For three years, there was a war with theseDanes; and there was a famine in the country, too, and a plague, both upon human creatures and beasts ButKING ALFRED, whose mighty heart never failed him, built large ships nevertheless, with which to pursue

the pirates on the sea; and he encouraged his soldiers, by his brave example, to fight valiantly against them onthe shore At last, he drove them all away; and then there was repose in England.

As great and good in peace, as he was great and good in war, KING ALFRED never rested from his labours toimprove his people He loved to talk with clever men, and with travellers from foreign countries, and to writedown what they told him, for his people to read He had studied Latin after learning to read English, and nowanother of his labours was, to translate Latin books into the English-Saxon tongue, that his people might beinterested, and improved by their contents He made just laws, that they might live more happily and freely;

he turned away all partial judges, that no wrong might be done them; he was so careful of their property, andpunished robbers so severely, that it was a common thing to say that under the great KING ALFRED,

garlands of golden chains and jewels might have hung across the streets, and no man would have touched one

He founded schools; he patiently heard causes himself in his Court of Justice; the great desires of his heartwere, to do right to all his subjects, and to leave England better, wiser, happier in all ways, than he found it.His industry in these efforts was quite astonishing Every day he divided into certain portions, and in eachportion devoted himself to a certain pursuit That he might divide his time exactly, he had wax torches orcandles made, which were all of the same size, were notched across at regular distances, and were always keptburning Thus, as the candles burnt down, he divided the day into notches, almost as accurately as we nowdivide it into hours upon the clock But when the candles were first invented, it was found that the wind anddraughts of air, blowing into the palace through the doors and windows, and through the chinks in the walls,caused them to gutter and burn unequally To prevent this, the King had them put into cases formed of woodand white horn And these were the first lanthorns ever made in England

All this time, he was afflicted with a terrible unknown disease, which caused him violent and frequent painthat nothing could relieve He bore it, as he had borne all the troubles of his life, like a brave good man, until

he was fifty-three years old; and then, having reigned thirty years, he died He died in the year nine hundredand one; but, long ago as that is, his fame, and the love and gratitude with which his subjects regarded him,are freshly remembered to the present hour

In the next reign, which was the reign of EDWARD, surnamed THE ELDER, who was chosen in council tosucceed, a nephew of KING ALFRED troubled the country by trying to obtain the throne The Danes in theEast of England took part with this usurper (perhaps because they had honoured his uncle so much, andhonoured him for his uncle's sake), and there was hard fighting; but, the King, with the assistance of his sister,gained the day, and reigned in peace for four and twenty years He gradually extended his power over thewhole of England, and so the Seven Kingdoms were united into one

When England thus became one kingdom, ruled over by one Saxon king, the Saxons had been settled in thecountry more than four hundred and fifty years Great changes had taken place in its customs during that time.The Saxons were still greedy eaters and great drinkers, and their feasts were often of a noisy and drunkenkind; but many new comforts and even elegances had become known, and were fast increasing Hangings forthe walls of rooms, where, in these modern days, we paste up paper, are known to have been sometimes made

of silk, ornamented with birds and flowers in needlework Tables and chairs were curiously carved in differentwoods; were sometimes decorated with gold or silver; sometimes even made of those precious metals Knivesand spoons were used at table; golden ornaments were worn - with silk and cloth, and golden tissues andembroideries; dishes were made of gold and silver, brass and bone There were varieties of drinking-horns,bedsteads, musical instruments A harp was passed round, at a feast, like the drinking-bowl, from guest toguest; and each one usually sang or played when his turn came The weapons of the Saxons were stoutlymade, and among them was a terrible iron hammer that gave deadly blows, and was long remembered TheSaxons themselves were a handsome people The men were proud of their long fair hair, parted on the

forehead; their ample beards, their fresh complexions, and clear eyes The beauty of the Saxon women filledall England with a new delight and grace

I have more to tell of the Saxons yet, but I stop to say this now, because under the GREAT ALFRED, all the

best points of the English- Saxon character were first encouraged, and in him first shown It has been thegreatest character among the nations of the earth Wherever the descendants of the Saxon race have gone,have sailed, or otherwise made their way, even to the remotest regions of the world, they have been patient,persevering, never to be broken in spirit, never to be turned aside from enterprises on which they have

resolved In Europe, Asia, Africa, America, the whole world over; in the desert, in the forest, on the sea;scorched by a burning sun, or frozen by ice that never melts; the Saxon blood remains unchanged

Wheresoever that race goes, there, law, and industry, and safety for life and property, and all the great results

of steady perseverance, are certain to arise

I pause to think with admiration, of the noble king who, in his single person, possessed all the Saxon virtues.Whom misfortune could not subdue, whom prosperity could not spoil, whose perseverance nothing couldshake Who was hopeful in defeat, and generous in success Who loved justice, freedom, truth, and

knowledge Who, in his care to instruct his people, probably did more to preserve the beautiful old Saxonlanguage, than I can imagine Without whom, the English tongue in which I tell this story might have wantedhalf its meaning As it is said that his spirit still inspires some of our best English laws, so, let you and I praythat it may animate our English hearts, at least to this - to resolve, when we see any of our fellow-creaturesleft in ignorance, that we will do our best, while life is in us, to have them taught; and to tell those rulerswhose duty it is to teach them, and who neglect their duty, that they have profited very little by all the yearsthat have rolled away since the year nine hundred and one, and that they are far behind the bright example ofKING ALFRED THE GREAT

CHAPTER IV

- ENGLAND UNDER ATHELSTAN AND THE SIX BOY-KINGS

ATHELSTAN, the son of Edward the Elder, succeeded that king He reigned only fifteen years; but he

remembered the glory of his grandfather, the great Alfred, and governed England well He reduced the

turbulent people of Wales, and obliged them to pay him a tribute in money, and in cattle, and to send him theirbest hawks and hounds He was victorious over the Cornish men, who were not yet quite under the Saxongovernment He restored such of the old laws as were good, and had fallen into disuse; made some wise newlaws, and took care of the poor and weak A strong alliance, made against him by ANLAF a Danish prince,CONSTANTINE King of the Scots, and the people of North Wales, he broke and defeated in one great battle,long famous for the vast numbers slain in it After that, he had a quiet reign; the lords and ladies about himhad leisure to become polite and agreeable; and foreign princes were glad (as they have sometimes beensince) to come to England on visits to the English court

When Athelstan died, at forty-seven years old, his brother EDMUND, who was only eighteen, became king

He was the first of six boy- kings, as you will presently know

They called him the Magnificent, because he showed a taste for improvement and refinement But he wasbeset by the Danes, and had a short and troubled reign, which came to a troubled end One night, when he wasfeasting in his hall, and had eaten much and drunk deep, he saw, among the company, a noted robber namedLEOF, who had been banished from England Made very angry by the boldness of this man, the King turned

to his cup-bearer, and said, 'There is a robber sitting at the table yonder, who, for his crimes, is an outlaw inthe land - a hunted wolf, whose life any man may take, at any time Command that robber to depart!' 'I willnot depart!' said Leof 'No?' cried the King 'No, by the Lord!' said Leof Upon that the King rose from hisseat, and, making passionately at the robber, and seizing him by his long hair, tried to throw him down Butthe robber had a dagger underneath his cloak, and, in the scuffle, stabbed the King to death That done, he sethis back against the wall, and fought so desperately, that although he was soon cut to pieces by the King'sarmed men, and the wall and pavement were splashed with his blood, yet it was not before he had killed andwounded many of them You may imagine what rough lives the kings of those times led, when one of them

could struggle, half drunk, with a public robber in his own dining-hall, and be stabbed in presence of thecompany who ate and drank with him.

Then succeeded the boy-king EDRED, who was weak and sickly in body, but of a strong mind And hisarmies fought the Northmen, the Danes, and Norwegians, or the Sea-Kings, as they were called, and beat themfor the time And, in nine years, Edred died, and passed away

Then came the boy-king EDWY, fifteen years of age; but the real king, who had the real power, was a monknamed DUNSTAN - a clever priest, a little mad, and not a little proud and cruel

Dunstan was then Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, whither the body of King Edmund the Magnificent wascarried, to be buried While yet a boy, he had got out of his bed one night (being then in a fever), and walkedabout Glastonbury Church when it was under repair; and, because he did not tumble off some scaffolds thatwere there, and break his neck, it was reported that he had been shown over the building by an angel He hadalso made a harp that was said to play of itself - which it very likely did, as AEolian Harps, which are played

by the wind, and are understood now, always do For these wonders he had been once denounced by hisenemies, who were jealous of his favour with the late King Athelstan, as a magician; and he had been waylaid,bound hand and foot, and thrown into a marsh But he got out again, somehow, to cause a great deal of troubleyet

The priests of those days were, generally, the only scholars They were learned in many things Having tomake their own convents and monasteries on uncultivated grounds that were granted to them by the Crown, itwas necessary that they should be good farmers and good gardeners, or their lands would have been too poor

to support them For the decoration of the chapels where they prayed, and for the comfort of the refectorieswhere they ate and drank, it was necessary that there should be good carpenters, good smiths, good painters,among them For their greater safety in sickness and accident, living alone by themselves in solitary places, itwas necessary that they should study the virtues of plants and herbs, and should know how to dress cuts,burns, scalds, and bruises, and how to set broken limbs Accordingly, they taught themselves, and one

another, a great variety of useful arts; and became skilful in agriculture, medicine, surgery, and handicraft.And when they wanted the aid of any little piece of machinery, which would be simple enough now, but wasmarvellous then, to impose a trick upon the poor peasants, they knew very well how to make it; and DIDmake it many a time and often, I have no doubt

Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, was one of the most sagacious of these monks He was an ingenioussmith, and worked at a forge in a little cell This cell was made too short to admit of his lying at full lengthwhen he went to sleep - as if THAT did any good to anybody! - and he used to tell the most extraordinary liesabout demons and spirits, who, he said, came there to persecute him For instance, he related that one daywhen he was at work, the devil looked in at the little window, and tried to tempt him to lead a life of idlepleasure; whereupon, having his pincers in the fire, red hot, he seized the devil by the nose, and put him tosuch pain, that his bellowings were heard for miles and miles Some people are inclined to think this nonsense

a part of Dunstan's madness (for his head never quite recovered the fever), but I think not I observe that itinduced the ignorant people to consider him a holy man, and that it made him very powerful Which wasexactly what he always wanted

On the day of the coronation of the handsome boy-king Edwy, it was remarked by ODO, Archbishop ofCanterbury (who was a Dane by birth), that the King quietly left the coronation feast, while all the companywere there Odo, much displeased, sent his friend Dunstan to seek him Dunstan finding him in the company

of his beautiful young wife ELGIVA, and her mother ETHELGIVA, a good and virtuous lady, not onlygrossly abused them, but dragged the young King back into the feasting-hall by force Some, again, thinkDunstan did this because the young King's fair wife was his own cousin, and the monks objected to peoplemarrying their own cousins; but I believe he did it, because he was an imperious, audacious, ill-conditionedpriest, who, having loved a young lady himself before he became a sour monk, hated all love now, and

everything belonging to it.

The young King was quite old enough to feel this insult Dunstan had been Treasurer in the last reign, and hesoon charged Dunstan with having taken some of the last king's money The Glastonbury Abbot fled toBelgium (very narrowly escaping some pursuers who were sent to put out his eyes, as you will wish they had,when you read what follows), and his abbey was given to priests who were married; whom he always, bothbefore and afterwards, opposed But he quickly conspired with his friend, Odo the Dane, to set up the King'syoung brother, EDGAR, as his rival for the throne; and, not content with this revenge, he caused the beautifulqueen Elgiva, though a lovely girl of only seventeen or eighteen, to be stolen from one of the Royal Palaces,branded in the cheek with a red-hot iron, and sold into slavery in Ireland But the Irish people pitied andbefriended her; and they said, 'Let us restore the girl- queen to the boy-king, and make the young lovershappy!' and they cured her of her cruel wound, and sent her home as beautiful as before But the villainDunstan, and that other villain, Odo, caused her to be waylaid at Gloucester as she was joyfully hurrying tojoin her husband, and to be hacked and hewn with swords, and to be barbarously maimed and lamed, and left

to die When Edwy the Fair (his people called him so, because he was so young and handsome) heard of herdreadful fate, he died of a broken heart; and so the pitiful story of the poor young wife and husband ends! Ah!Better to be two cottagers in these better times, than king and queen of England in those bad days, thoughnever so fair!

Then came the boy-king, EDGAR, called the Peaceful, fifteen years old Dunstan, being still the real king,drove all married priests out of the monasteries and abbeys, and replaced them by solitary monks like himself,

of the rigid order called the Benedictines He made himself Archbishop of Canterbury, for his greater glory;and exercised such power over the neighbouring British princes, and so collected them about the King, thatonce, when the King held his court at Chester, and went on the river Dee to visit the monastery of St John, theeight oars of his boat were pulled (as the people used to delight in relating in stories and songs) by eightcrowned kings, and steered by the King of England As Edgar was very obedient to Dunstan and the monks,they took great pains to represent him as the best of kings But he was really profligate, debauched, andvicious He once forcibly carried off a young lady from the convent at Wilton; and Dunstan, pretending to bevery much shocked, condemned him not to wear his crown upon his head for seven years - no great

punishment, I dare say, as it can hardly have been a more comfortable ornament to wear, than a stewpanwithout a handle His marriage with his second wife, ELFRIDA, is one of the worst events of his reign.Hearing of the beauty of this lady, he despatched his favourite courtier, ATHELWOLD, to her father's castle

in Devonshire, to see if she were really as charming as fame reported Now, she was so exceedingly beautifulthat Athelwold fell in love with her himself, and married her; but he told the King that she was only rich - nothandsome The King, suspecting the truth when they came home, resolved to pay the newly-married couple avisit; and, suddenly, told Athelwold to prepare for his immediate coming Athelwold, terrified, confessed tohis young wife what he had said and done, and implored her to disguise her beauty by some ugly dress or sillymanner, that he might be safe from the King's anger She promised that she would; but she was a proudwoman, who would far rather have been a queen than the wife of a courtier She dressed herself in her bestdress, and adorned herself with her richest jewels; and when the King came, presently, he discovered thecheat So, he caused his false friend, Athelwold, to be murdered in a wood, and married his widow, this badElfrida Six or seven years afterwards, he died; and was buried, as if he had been all that the monks said hewas, in the abbey of Glastonbury, which he - or Dunstan for him - had much enriched

England, in one part of this reign, was so troubled by wolves, which, driven out of the open country, hidthemselves in the mountains of Wales when they were not attacking travellers and animals, that the tributepayable by the Welsh people was forgiven them, on condition of their producing, every year, three hundredwolves' heads And the Welshmen were so sharp upon the wolves, to save their money, that in four years therewas not a wolf left

Then came the boy-king, EDWARD, called the Martyr, from the manner of his death Elfrida had a son,named ETHELRED, for whom she claimed the throne; but Dunstan did not choose to favour him, and he

made Edward king The boy was hunting, one day, down in Dorsetshire, when he rode near to Corfe Castle,where Elfrida and Ethelred lived Wishing to see them kindly, he rode away from his attendants and galloped

to the castle gate, where he arrived at twilight, and blew his hunting-horn 'You are welcome, dear King,' saidElfrida, coming out, with her brightest smiles 'Pray you dismount and enter.' 'Not so, dear madam,' said theKing 'My company will miss me, and fear that I have met with some harm Please you to give me a cup ofwine, that I may drink here, in the saddle, to you and to my little brother, and so ride away with the goodspeed I have made in riding here.' Elfrida, going in to bring the wine, whispered an armed servant, one of herattendants, who stole out of the darkening gateway, and crept round behind the King's horse As the Kingraised the cup to his lips, saying, 'Health!' to the wicked woman who was smiling on him, and to his innocentbrother whose hand she held in hers, and who was only ten years old, this armed man made a spring andstabbed him in the back He dropped the cup and spurred his horse away; but, soon fainting with loss of blood,dropped from the saddle, and, in his fall, entangled one of his feet in the stirrup The frightened horse dashedon; trailing his rider's curls upon the ground; dragging his smooth young face through ruts, and stones, andbriers, and fallen leaves, and mud; until the hunters, tracking the animal's course by the King's blood, caughthis bridle, and released the disfigured body

Then came the sixth and last of the boy-kings, ETHELRED, whom Elfrida, when he cried out at the sight ofhis murdered brother riding away from the castle gate, unmercifully beat with a torch which she snatchedfrom one of the attendants The people so disliked this boy, on account of his cruel mother and the murder shehad done to promote him, that Dunstan would not have had him for king, but would have made EDGITHA,the daughter of the dead King Edgar, and of the lady whom he stole out of the convent at Wilton, Queen ofEngland, if she would have consented But she knew the stories of the youthful kings too well, and would not

be persuaded from the convent where she lived in peace; so, Dunstan put Ethelred on the throne, having noone else to put there, and gave him the nickname of THE UNREADY - knowing that he wanted resolutionand firmness

At first, Elfrida possessed great influence over the young King, but, as he grew older and came of age, herinfluence declined The infamous woman, not having it in her power to do any more evil, then retired fromcourt, and, according, to the fashion of the time, built churches and monasteries, to expiate her guilt As if achurch, with a steeple reaching to the very stars, would have been any sign of true repentance for the blood ofthe poor boy, whose murdered form was trailed at his horse's heels! As if she could have buried her

wickedness beneath the senseless stones of the whole world, piled up one upon another, for the monks to livein!

About the ninth or tenth year of this reign, Dunstan died He was growing old then, but was as stern and artful

as ever Two circumstances that happened in connexion with him, in this reign of Ethelred, made a greatnoise Once, he was present at a meeting of the Church, when the question was discussed whether priestsshould have permission to marry; and, as he sat with his head hung down, apparently thinking about it, a voiceseemed to come out of a crucifix in the room, and warn the meeting to be of his opinion This was somejuggling of Dunstan's, and was probably his own voice disguised But he played off a worse juggle than that,soon afterwards; for, another meeting being held on the same subject, and he and his supporters being seated

on one side of a great room, and their opponents on the other, he rose and said, 'To Christ himself, as judge,

do I commit this cause!' Immediately on these words being spoken, the floor where the opposite party sat gaveway, and some were killed and many wounded You may be pretty sure that it had been weakened underDunstan's direction, and that it fell at Dunstan's signal HIS part of the floor did not go down No, no He wastoo good a workman for that

When he died, the monks settled that he was a Saint, and called him Saint Dunstan ever afterwards Theymight just as well have settled that he was a coach-horse, and could just as easily have called him one

Ethelred the Unready was glad enough, I dare say, to be rid of this holy saint; but, left to himself, he was apoor weak king, and his reign was a reign of defeat and shame The restless Danes, led by SWEYN, a son of

the King of Denmark who had quarrelled with his father and had been banished from home, again came intoEngland, and, year after year, attacked and despoiled large towns To coax these sea-kings away, the weakEthelred paid them money; but, the more money he paid, the more money the Danes wanted At first, he gavethem ten thousand pounds; on their next invasion, sixteen thousand pounds; on their next invasion, four andtwenty thousand pounds: to pay which large sums, the unfortunate English people were heavily taxed But, asthe Danes still came back and wanted more, he thought it would be a good plan to marry into some powerfulforeign family that would help him with soldiers So, in the year one thousand and two, he courted and

married Emma, the sister of Richard Duke of Normandy; a lady who was called the Flower of Normandy.And now, a terrible deed was done in England, the like of which was never done on English ground before orsince On the thirteenth of November, in pursuance of secret instructions sent by the King over the wholecountry, the inhabitants of every town and city armed, and murdered all the Danes who were their neighbours

Young and old, babies and soldiers, men and women, every Dane was killed No doubt there were amongthem many ferocious men who had done the English great wrong, and whose pride and insolence, in

swaggering in the houses of the English and insulting their wives and daughters, had become unbearable; but

no doubt there were also among them many peaceful Christian Danes who had married English women andbecome like English men They were all slain, even to GUNHILDA, the sister of the King of Denmark,married to an English lord; who was first obliged to see the murder of her husband and her child, and then waskilled herself

When the King of the sea-kings heard of this deed of blood, he swore that he would have a great revenge Heraised an army, and a mightier fleet of ships than ever yet had sailed to England; and in all his army there wasnot a slave or an old man, but every soldier was a free man, and the son of a free man, and in the prime of life,and sworn to be revenged upon the English nation, for the massacre of that dread thirteenth of November,when his countrymen and countrywomen, and the little children whom they loved, were killed with fire andsword And so, the sea-kings came to England in many great ships, each bearing the flag of its own

commander Golden eagles, ravens, dragons, dolphins, beasts of prey, threatened England from the prows ofthose ships, as they came onward through the water; and were reflected in the shining shields that hung upontheir sides The ship that bore the standard of the King of the sea-kings was carved and painted like a mightyserpent; and the King in his anger prayed that the Gods in whom he trusted might all desert him, if his serpentdid not strike its fangs into England's heart

And indeed it did For, the great army landing from the great fleet, near Exeter, went forward, laying Englandwaste, and striking their lances in the earth as they advanced, or throwing them into rivers, in token of theirmaking all the island theirs In remembrance of the black November night when the Danes were murdered,wheresoever the invaders came, they made the Saxons prepare and spread for them great feasts; and whenthey had eaten those feasts, and had drunk a curse to England with wild rejoicings, they drew their swords,and killed their Saxon entertainers, and marched on For six long years they carried on this war: burning thecrops, farmhouses, barns, mills, granaries; killing the labourers in the fields; preventing the seed from beingsown in the ground; causing famine and starvation; leaving only heaps of ruin and smoking ashes, where theyhad found rich towns To crown this misery, English officers and men deserted, and even the favourites ofEthelred the Unready, becoming traitors, seized many of the English ships, turned pirates against their owncountry, and aided by a storm occasioned the loss of nearly the whole English navy

There was but one man of note, at this miserable pass, who was true to his country and the feeble King Hewas a priest, and a brave one For twenty days, the Archbishop of Canterbury defended that city against itsDanish besiegers; and when a traitor in the town threw the gates open and admitted them, he said, in chains, 'Iwill not buy my life with money that must be extorted from the suffering people Do with me what youplease!' Again and again, he steadily refused to purchase his release with gold wrung from the poor

At last, the Danes being tired of this, and being assembled at a drunken merry-making, had him brought into

the feasting-hall.

'Now, bishop,' they said, 'we want gold!'

He looked round on the crowd of angry faces; from the shaggy beards close to him, to the shaggy beardsagainst the walls, where men were mounted on tables and forms to see him over the heads of others: and heknew that his time was come

'I have no gold,' he said

'Get it, bishop!' they all thundered

'That, I have often told you I will not,' said he

They gathered closer round him, threatening, but he stood unmoved Then, one man struck him; then, another;then a cursing soldier picked up from a heap in a corner of the hall, where fragments had been rudely thrown

at dinner, a great ox-bone, and cast it at his face, from which the blood came spurting forth; then, others ran tothe same heap, and knocked him down with other bones, and bruised and battered him; until one soldierwhom he had baptised (willing, as I hope for the sake of that soldier's soul, to shorten the sufferings of thegood man) struck him dead with his battle-axe

If Ethelred had had the heart to emulate the courage of this noble archbishop, he might have done somethingyet But he paid the Danes forty-eight thousand pounds, instead, and gained so little by the cowardly act, thatSweyn soon afterwards came over to subdue all England So broken was the attachment of the English people,

by this time, to their incapable King and their forlorn country which could not protect them, that they

welcomed Sweyn on all sides, as a deliverer London faithfully stood out, as long as the King was within itswalls; but, when he sneaked away, it also welcomed the Dane Then, all was over; and the King took refugeabroad with the Duke of Normandy, who had already given shelter to the King's wife, once the Flower of thatcountry, and to her children

Still, the English people, in spite of their sad sufferings, could not quite forget the great King Alfred and theSaxon race When Sweyn died suddenly, in little more than a month after he had been proclaimed King ofEngland, they generously sent to Ethelred, to say that they would have him for their King again, 'if he wouldonly govern them better than he had governed them before.' The Unready, instead of coming himself, sentEdward, one of his sons, to make promises for him At last, he followed, and the English declared him King.The Danes declared CANUTE, the son of Sweyn, King Thus, direful war began again, and lasted for threeyears, when the Unready died And I know of nothing better that he did, in all his reign of eight and thirtyyears

Was Canute to be King now? Not over the Saxons, they said; they must have EDMUND, one of the sons ofthe Unready, who was surnamed IRONSIDE, because of his strength and stature Edmund and Canute

thereupon fell to, and fought five battles - O unhappy England, what a fighting-ground it was! - and thenIronside, who was a big man, proposed to Canute, who was a little man, that they two should fight it out insingle combat If Canute had been the big man, he would probably have said yes, but, being the little man, hedecidedly said no However, he declared that he was willing to divide the kingdom - to take all that lay north

of Watling Street, as the old Roman military road from Dover to Chester was called, and to give Ironside allthat lay south of it Most men being weary of so much bloodshed, this was done But Canute soon becamesole King of England; for Ironside died suddenly within two months Some think that he was killed, and killed

by Canute's orders No one knows

CHAPTER V

- ENGLAND UNDER CANUTE THE DANE

CANUTE reigned eighteen years He was a merciless King at first After he had clasped the hands of theSaxon chiefs, in token of the sincerity with which he swore to be just and good to them in return for theiracknowledging him, he denounced and slew many of them, as well as many relations of the late King 'Hewho brings me the head of one of my enemies,' he used to say, 'shall be dearer to me than a brother.' And hewas so severe in hunting down his enemies, that he must have got together a pretty large family of these dearbrothers He was strongly inclined to kill EDMUND and EDWARD, two children, sons of poor Ironside; but,being afraid to do so in England, he sent them over to the King of Sweden, with a request that the King would

be so good as 'dispose of them.' If the King of Sweden had been like many, many other men of that day, hewould have had their innocent throats cut; but he was a kind man, and brought them up tenderly

Normandy ran much in Canute's mind In Normandy were the two children of the late king - EDWARD andALFRED by name; and their uncle the Duke might one day claim the crown for them But the Duke showed

so little inclination to do so now, that he proposed to Canute to marry his sister, the widow of The Unready;who, being but a showy flower, and caring for nothing so much as becoming a queen again, left her childrenand was wedded to him

Successful and triumphant, assisted by the valour of the English in his foreign wars, and with little strife totrouble him at home, Canute had a prosperous reign, and made many improvements He was a poet and amusician He grew sorry, as he grew older, for the blood he had shed at first; and went to Rome in a Pilgrim'sdress, by way of washing it out He gave a great deal of money to foreigners on his journey; but he took itfrom the English before he started On the whole, however, he certainly became a far better man when he had

no opposition to contend with, and was as great a King as England had known for some time

The old writers of history relate how that Canute was one day disgusted with his courtiers for their flattery,and how he caused his chair to be set on the sea-shore, and feigned to command the tide as it came up not towet the edge of his robe, for the land was his; how the tide came up, of course, without regarding him; andhow he then turned to his flatterers, and rebuked them, saying, what was the might of any earthly king, to themight of the Creator, who could say unto the sea, 'Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther!' We may learn fromthis, I think, that a little sense will go a long way in a king; and that courtiers are not easily cured of flattery,nor kings of a liking for it If the courtiers of Canute had not known, long before, that the King was fond offlattery, they would have known better than to offer it in such large doses And if they had not known that hewas vain of this speech (anything but a wonderful speech it seems to me, if a good child had made it), theywould not have been at such great pains to repeat it I fancy I see them all on the sea-shore together; the King'schair sinking in the sand; the King in a mighty good humour with his own wisdom; and the courtiers

pretending to be quite stunned by it!

It is not the sea alone that is bidden to go 'thus far, and no farther.' The great command goes forth to all thekings upon the earth, and went to Canute in the year one thousand and thirty-five, and stretched him deadupon his bed Beside it, stood his Norman wife Perhaps, as the King looked his last upon her, he, who had sooften thought distrustfully of Normandy, long ago, thought once more of the two exiled Princes in theiruncle's court, and of the little favour they could feel for either Danes or Saxons, and of a rising cloud inNormandy that slowly moved towards England

CHAPTER VI

- ENGLAND UNDER HAROLD HAREFOOT, HARDICANUTE, AND EDWARD THE CONFESSOR

CANUTE left three sons, by name SWEYN, HAROLD, and HARDICANUTE; but his Queen, Emma, oncethe Flower of Normandy, was the mother of only Hardicanute Canute had wished his dominions to be dividedbetween the three, and had wished Harold to have England; but the Saxon people in the South of England,headed by a nobleman with great possessions, called the powerful EARL GODWIN (who is said to have beenoriginally a poor cow-boy), opposed this, and desired to have, instead, either Hardicanute, or one of the twoexiled Princes who were over in Normandy It seemed so certain that there would be more bloodshed to settlethis dispute, that many people left their homes, and took refuge in the woods and swamps Happily, however,

it was agreed to refer the whole question to a great meeting at Oxford, which decided that Harold should haveall the country north of the Thames, with London for his capital city, and that Hardicanute should have all thesouth The quarrel was so arranged; and, as Hardicanute was in Denmark troubling himself very little aboutanything but eating and getting drunk, his mother and Earl Godwin governed the south for him

They had hardly begun to do so, and the trembling people who had hidden themselves were scarcely at homeagain, when Edward, the elder of the two exiled Princes, came over from Normandy with a few followers, toclaim the English Crown His mother Emma, however, who only cared for her last son Hardicanute, instead ofassisting him, as he expected, opposed him so strongly with all her influence that he was very soon glad to getsafely back His brother Alfred was not so fortunate Believing in an affectionate letter, written some timeafterwards to him and his brother, in his mother's name (but whether really with or without his mother'sknowledge is now uncertain), he allowed himself to be tempted over to England, with a good force of soldiers,and landing on the Kentish coast, and being met and welcomed by Earl Godwin, proceeded into Surrey, as far

as the town of Guildford Here, he and his men halted in the evening to rest, having still the Earl in theircompany; who had ordered lodgings and good cheer for them But, in the dead of the night, when they wereoff their guard, being divided into small parties sleeping soundly after a long march and a plentiful supper indifferent houses, they were set upon by the King's troops, and taken prisoners Next morning they were drawnout in a line, to the number of six hundred men, and were barbarously tortured and killed; with the exception

of every tenth man, who was sold into slavery As to the wretched Prince Alfred, he was stripped naked, tied

to a horse and sent away into the Isle of Ely, where his eyes were torn out of his head, and where in a fewdays he miserably died I am not sure that the Earl had wilfully entrapped him, but I suspect it strongly.Harold was now King all over England, though it is doubtful whether the Archbishop of Canterbury (thegreater part of the priests were Saxons, and not friendly to the Danes) ever consented to crown him Crowned

or uncrowned, with the Archbishop's leave or without it, he was King for four years: after which short reign

he died, and was buried; having never done much in life but go a hunting He was such a fast runner at this,his favourite sport, that the people called him Harold Harefoot

Hardicanute was then at Bruges, in Flanders, plotting, with his mother (who had gone over there after thecruel murder of Prince Alfred), for the invasion of England The Danes and Saxons, finding themselveswithout a King, and dreading new disputes, made common cause, and joined in inviting him to occupy theThrone He consented, and soon troubled them enough; for he brought over numbers of Danes, and taxed thepeople so insupportably to enrich those greedy favourites that there were many insurrections, especially one atWorcester, where the citizens rose and killed his tax-collectors; in revenge for which he burned their city Hewas a brutal King, whose first public act was to order the dead body of poor Harold Harefoot to be dug up,beheaded, and thrown into the river His end was worthy of such a beginning He fell down drunk, with agoblet of wine in his hand, at a wedding-feast at Lambeth, given in honour of the marriage of his

standard-bearer, a Dane named TOWED THE PROUD And he never spoke again

EDWARD, afterwards called by the monks THE CONFESSOR, succeeded; and his first act was to oblige hismother Emma, who had favoured him so little, to retire into the country; where she died some ten yearsafterwards He was the exiled prince whose brother Alfred had been so foully killed He had been invited overfrom Normandy by Hardicanute, in the course of his short reign of two years, and had been handsomelytreated at court His cause was now favoured by the powerful Earl Godwin, and he was soon made King ThisEarl had been suspected by the people, ever since Prince Alfred's cruel death; he had even been tried in the

last reign for the Prince's murder, but had been pronounced not guilty; chiefly, as it was supposed, because of

a present he had made to the swinish King, of a gilded ship with a figure-head of solid gold, and a crew ofeighty splendidly armed men It was his interest to help the new King with his power, if the new King wouldhelp him against the popular distrust and hatred So they made a bargain Edward the Confessor got theThrone The Earl got more power and more land, and his daughter Editha was made queen; for it was a part oftheir compact that the King should take her for his wife

But, although she was a gentle lady, in all things worthy to be beloved good, beautiful, sensible, and kind the King from the first neglected her Her father and her six proud brothers, resenting this cold treatment,harassed the King greatly by exerting all their power to make him unpopular Having lived so long in

-Normandy, he preferred the Normans to the English He made a Norman Archbishop, and Norman Bishops;his great officers and favourites were all Normans; he introduced the Norman fashions and the Normanlanguage; in imitation of the state custom of Normandy, he attached a great seal to his state documents,instead of merely marking them, as the Saxon Kings had done, with the sign of the cross - just as poor peoplewho have never been taught to write, now make the same mark for their names All this, the powerful EarlGodwin and his six proud sons represented to the people as disfavour shown towards the English; and thusthey daily increased their own power, and daily diminished the power of the King

They were greatly helped by an event that occurred when he had reigned eight years Eustace, Earl of

Bologne, who had married the King's sister, came to England on a visit After staying at the court some time,

he set forth, with his numerous train of attendants, to return home They were to embark at Dover Enteringthat peaceful town in armour, they took possession of the best houses, and noisily demanded to be lodged andentertained without payment One of the bold men of Dover, who would not endure to have these domineeringstrangers jingling their heavy swords and iron corselets up and down his house, eating his meat and drinkinghis strong liquor, stood in his doorway and refused admission to the first armed man who came there Thearmed man drew, and wounded him The man of Dover struck the armed man dead Intelligence of what hehad done, spreading through the streets to where the Count Eustace and his men were standing by their horses,bridle in hand, they passionately mounted, galloped to the house, surrounded it, forced their way in (the doorsand windows being closed when they came up), and killed the man of Dover at his own fireside They thenclattered through the streets, cutting down and riding over men, women, and children This did not last long,you may believe The men of Dover set upon them with great fury, killed nineteen of the foreigners, woundedmany more, and, blockading the road to the port so that they should not embark, beat them out of the town bythe way they had come Hereupon, Count Eustace rides as hard as man can ride to Gloucester, where Edward

is, surrounded by Norman monks and Norman lords 'Justice!' cries the Count, 'upon the men of Dover, whohave set upon and slain my people!' The King sends immediately for the powerful Earl Godwin, who happens

to be near; reminds him that Dover is under his government; and orders him to repair to Dover and do militaryexecution on the inhabitants 'It does not become you,' says the proud Earl in reply, 'to condemn without ahearing those whom you have sworn to protect I will not do it.'

The King, therefore, summoned the Earl, on pain of banishment and loss of his titles and property, to appearbefore the court to answer this disobedience The Earl refused to appear He, his eldest son Harold, and hissecond son Sweyn, hastily raised as many fighting men as their utmost power could collect, and demanded tohave Count Eustace and his followers surrendered to the justice of the country The King, in his turn, refused

to give them up, and raised a strong force After some treaty and delay, the troops of the great Earl and hissons began to fall off The Earl, with a part of his family and abundance of treasure, sailed to Flanders; Haroldescaped to Ireland; and the power of the great family was for that time gone in England But, the people didnot forget them

Then, Edward the Confessor, with the true meanness of a mean spirit, visited his dislike of the once powerfulfather and sons upon the helpless daughter and sister, his unoffending wife, whom all who saw her (herhusband and his monks excepted) loved He seized rapaciously upon her fortune and her jewels, and allowingher only one attendant, confined her in a gloomy convent, of which a sister of his - no doubt an unpleasant

lady after his own heart - was abbess or jailer.

Having got Earl Godwin and his six sons well out of his way, the King favoured the Normans more than ever

He invited over WILLIAM, DUKE OF NORMANDY, the son of that Duke who had received him and hismurdered brother long ago, and of a peasant girl, a tanner's daughter, with whom that Duke had fallen in lovefor her beauty as he saw her washing clothes in a brook William, who was a great warrior, with a passion forfine horses, dogs, and arms, accepted the invitation; and the Normans in England, finding themselves morenumerous than ever when he arrived with his retinue, and held in still greater honour at court than before,became more and more haughty towards the people, and were more and more disliked by them

The old Earl Godwin, though he was abroad, knew well how the people felt; for, with part of the treasure hehad carried away with him, he kept spies and agents in his pay all over England

Accordingly, he thought the time was come for fitting out a great expedition against the Norman-loving King.With it, he sailed to the Isle of Wight, where he was joined by his son Harold, the most gallant and brave of allhis family And so the father and son came sailing up the Thames to Southwark; great numbers of the peopledeclaring for them, and shouting for the English Earl and the English Harold, against the Norman favourites!

The King was at first as blind and stubborn as kings usually have been whensoever they have been in thehands of monks But the people rallied so thickly round the old Earl and his son, and the old Earl was sosteady in demanding without bloodshed the restoration of himself and his family to their rights, that at last thecourt took the alarm The Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Norman Bishop of London, surrounded

by their retainers, fought their way out of London, and escaped from Essex to France in a fishing-boat Theother Norman favourites dispersed in all directions The old Earl and his sons (except Sweyn, who had

committed crimes against the law) were restored to their possessions and dignities Editha, the virtuous andlovely Queen of the insensible King, was triumphantly released from her prison, the convent, and once moresat in her chair of state, arrayed in the jewels of which, when she had no champion to support her rights, hercold-blooded husband had deprived her

The old Earl Godwin did not long enjoy his restored fortune He fell down in a fit at the King's table, and diedupon the third day afterwards Harold succeeded to his power, and to a far higher place in the attachment ofthe people than his father had ever held By his valour he subdued the King's enemies in many bloody fights

He was vigorous against rebels in Scotland - this was the time when Macbeth slew Duncan, upon which eventour English Shakespeare, hundreds of years afterwards, wrote his great tragedy; and he killed the restlessWelsh King GRIFFITH, and brought his head to England

What Harold was doing at sea, when he was driven on the French coast by a tempest, is not at all certain; nordoes it at all matter That his ship was forced by a storm on that shore, and that he was taken prisoner, there is

no doubt In those barbarous days, all shipwrecked strangers were taken prisoners, and obliged to pay ransom

So, a certain Count Guy, who was the Lord of Ponthieu where Harold's disaster happened, seized him, instead

of relieving him like a hospitable and Christian lord as he ought to have done, and expected to make a verygood thing of it

But Harold sent off immediately to Duke William of Normandy, complaining of this treatment; and the Duke

no sooner heard of it than he ordered Harold to be escorted to the ancient town of Rouen, where he then was,and where he received him as an honoured guest Now, some writers tell us that Edward the Confessor, whowas by this time old and had no children, had made a will, appointing Duke William of Normandy his

successor, and had informed the Duke of his having done so There is no doubt that he was anxious about hissuccessor; because he had even invited over, from abroad, EDWARD THE OUTLAW, a son of Ironside, whohad come to England with his wife and three children, but whom the King had strangely refused to see when

he did come, and who had died in London suddenly (princes were terribly liable to sudden death in thosedays), and had been buried in St Paul's Cathedral The King might possibly have made such a will; or, having

always been fond of the Normans, he might have encouraged Norman William to aspire to the English crown,

by something that he said to him when he was staying at the English court But, certainly William did nowaspire to it; and knowing that Harold would be a powerful rival, he called together a great assembly of hisnobles, offered Harold his daughter ADELE in marriage, informed him that he meant on King Edward's death

to claim the English crown as his own inheritance, and required Harold then and there to swear to aid him.Harold, being in the Duke's power, took this oath upon the Missal, or Prayer-book It is a good example of thesuperstitions of the monks, that this Missal, instead of being placed upon a table, was placed upon a tub;which, when Harold had sworn, was uncovered, and shown to be full of dead men's bones - bones, as themonks pretended, of saints This was supposed to make Harold's oath a great deal more impressive andbinding As if the great name of the Creator of Heaven and earth could be made more solemn by a

knuckle-bone, or a double-tooth, or a finger-nail, of Dunstan!

Within a week or two after Harold's return to England, the dreary old Confessor was found to be dying Afterwandering in his mind like a very weak old man, he died As he had put himself entirely in the hands of themonks when he was alive, they praised him lustily when he was dead They had gone so far, already, as topersuade him that he could work miracles; and had brought people afflicted with a bad disorder of the skin, tohim, to be touched and cured This was called 'touching for the King's Evil,' which afterwards became a royalcustom You know, however, Who really touched the sick, and healed them; and you know His sacred name isnot among the dusty line of human kings

CHAPTER VII

- ENGLAND UNDER HAROLD THE SECOND, AND CONQUERED BY THE NORMANS

HAROLD was crowned King of England on the very day of the maudlin Confessor's funeral He had goodneed to be quick about it When the news reached Norman William, hunting in his park at Rouen, he droppedhis bow, returned to his palace, called his nobles to council, and presently sent ambassadors to Harold, calling

on him to keep his oath and resign the Crown Harold would do no such thing The barons of France leaguedtogether round Duke William for the invasion of England Duke William promised freely to distribute Englishwealth and English lands among them The Pope sent to Normandy a consecrated banner, and a ring

containing a hair which he warranted to have grown on the head of Saint Peter He blessed the enterprise; andcursed Harold; and requested that the Normans would pay 'Peter's Pence' - or a tax to himself of a penny ayear on every house - a little more regularly in future, if they could make it convenient

King Harold had a rebel brother in Flanders, who was a vassal of HAROLD HARDRADA, King of Norway.This brother, and this Norwegian King, joining their forces against England, with Duke William's help, won afight in which the English were commanded by two nobles; and then besieged York Harold, who was waitingfor the Normans on the coast at Hastings, with his army, marched to Stamford Bridge upon the river Derwent

to give them instant battle

He found them drawn up in a hollow circle, marked out by their shining spears Riding round this circle at adistance, to survey it, he saw a brave figure on horseback, in a blue mantle and a bright helmet, whose horsesuddenly stumbled and threw him

'Who is that man who has fallen?' Harold asked of one of his captains

'The King of Norway,' he replied

'He is a tall and stately king,' said Harold, 'but his end is near.'

He added, in a little while, 'Go yonder to my brother, and tell him, if he withdraw his troops, he shall be Earl

of Northumberland, and rich and powerful in England.'

The captain rode away and gave the message

'What will he give to my friend the King of Norway?' asked the brother

'Seven feet of earth for a grave,' replied the captain

'No more?' returned the brother, with a smile

'The King of Norway being a tall man, perhaps a little more,' replied the captain

'Ride back!' said the brother, 'and tell King Harold to make ready for the fight!'

He did so, very soon And such a fight King Harold led against that force, that his brother, and the NorwegianKing, and every chief of note in all their host, except the Norwegian King's son, Olave, to whom he gavehonourable dismissal, were left dead upon the field The victorious army marched to York As King Haroldsat there at the feast, in the midst of all his company, a stir was heard at the doors; and messengers all coveredwith mire from riding far and fast through broken ground came hurrying in, to report that the Normans hadlanded in England

The intelligence was true They had been tossed about by contrary winds, and some of their ships had beenwrecked A part of their own shore, to which they had been driven back, was strewn with Norman bodies Butthey had once more made sail, led by the Duke's own galley, a present from his wife, upon the prow whereofthe figure of a golden boy stood pointing towards England By day, the banner of the three Lions of

Normandy, the diverse coloured sails, the gilded vans, the many decorations of this gorgeous ship, had

glittered in the sun and sunny water; by night, a light had sparkled like a star at her mast-head And now,encamped near Hastings, with their leader lying in the old Roman castle of Pevensey, the English retiring inall directions, the land for miles around scorched and smoking, fired and pillaged, was the whole Normanpower, hopeful and strong on English ground

Harold broke up the feast and hurried to London Within a week, his army was ready He sent out spies toascertain the Norman strength William took them, caused them to be led through his whole camp, and thendismissed 'The Normans,' said these spies to Harold, 'are not bearded on the upper lip as we English are, butare shorn They are priests.' 'My men,' replied Harold, with a laugh, 'will find those priests good soldiers!''The Saxons,' reported Duke William's outposts of Norman soldiers, who were instructed to retire as KingHarold's army advanced, 'rush on us through their pillaged country with the fury of madmen.'

'Let them come, and come soon!' said Duke William

Some proposals for a reconciliation were made, but were soon abandoned In the middle of the month ofOctober, in the year one thousand and sixty-six, the Normans and the English came front to front All nightthe armies lay encamped before each other, in a part of the country then called Senlac, now called (in

remembrance of them) Battle With the first dawn of day, they arose There, in the faint light, were the

English on a hill; a wood behind them; in their midst, the Royal banner, representing a fighting warrior,woven in gold thread, adorned with precious stones; beneath the banner, as it rustled in the wind, stood KingHarold on foot, with two of his remaining brothers by his side; around them, still and silent as the dead,clustered the whole English army - every soldier covered by his shield, and bearing in his hand his dreadedEnglish battle-axe

On an opposite hill, in three lines, archers, foot-soldiers, horsemen, was the Norman force Of a sudden, agreat battle-cry, 'God help us!' burst from the Norman lines The English answered with their own battle-cry,'God's Rood! Holy Rood!' The Normans then came sweeping down the hill to attack the English.

There was one tall Norman Knight who rode before the Norman army on a prancing horse, throwing up hisheavy sword and catching it, and singing of the bravery of his countrymen An English Knight, who rode outfrom the English force to meet him, fell by this Knight's hand Another English Knight rode out, and he felltoo But then a third rode out, and killed the Norman This was in the first beginning of the fight It soon ragedeverywhere

The English, keeping side by side in a great mass, cared no more for the showers of Norman arrows than ifthey had been showers of Norman rain When the Norman horsemen rode against them, with their battle-axesthey cut men and horses down The Normans gave way The English pressed forward A cry went forthamong the Norman troops that Duke William was killed Duke William took off his helmet, in order that hisface might be distinctly seen, and rode along the line before his men This gave them courage As they turnedagain to face the English, some of their Norman horse divided the pursuing body of the English from the rest,and thus all that foremost portion of the English army fell, fighting bravely The main body still remainingfirm, heedless of the Norman arrows, and with their battle-axes cutting down the crowds of horsemen whenthey rode up, like forests of young trees, Duke William pretended to retreat The eager English followed TheNorman army closed again, and fell upon them with great slaughter

'Still,' said Duke William, 'there are thousands of the English, firms as rocks around their King Shoot upward,Norman archers, that your arrows may fall down upon their faces!'

The sun rose high, and sank, and the battle still raged Through all the wild October day, the clash and dinresounded in the air In the red sunset, and in the white moonlight, heaps upon heaps of dead men lay strewn,

a dreadful spectacle, all over the ground

King Harold, wounded with an arrow in the eye, was nearly blind His brothers were already killed TwentyNorman Knights, whose battered armour had flashed fiery and golden in the sunshine all day long, and nowlooked silvery in the moonlight, dashed forward to seize the Royal banner from the English Knights andsoldiers, still faithfully collected round their blinded King The King received a mortal wound, and dropped.The English broke and fled The Normans rallied, and the day was lost

O what a sight beneath the moon and stars, when lights were shining in the tent of the victorious Duke

William, which was pitched near the spot where Harold fell and he and his knights were carousing, within and soldiers with torches, going slowly to and fro, without, sought for the corpse of Harold among piles ofdead - and the Warrior, worked in golden thread and precious stones, lay low, all torn and soiled with blood -and the three Norman Lions kept watch over the field!

-CHAPTER VIII

- ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE FIRST, THE NORMAN CONQUEROR

UPON the ground where the brave Harold fell, William the Norman afterwards founded an abbey, which,under the name of Battle Abbey, was a rich and splendid place through many a troubled year, though now it is

a grey ruin overgrown with ivy But the first work he had to do, was to conquer the English thoroughly; andthat, as you know by this time, was hard work for any man

He ravaged several counties; he burned and plundered many towns; he laid waste scores upon scores of miles

of pleasant country; he destroyed innumerable lives At length STIGAND, Archbishop of Canterbury, with

other representatives of the clergy and the people, went to his camp, and submitted to him EDGAR, theinsignificant son of Edmund Ironside, was proclaimed King by others, but nothing came of it He fled toScotland afterwards, where his sister, who was young and beautiful, married the Scottish King Edgar himselfwas not important enough for anybody to care much about him.

On Christmas Day, William was crowned in Westminster Abbey, under the title of WILLIAM THE FIRST;but he is best known as WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR It was a strange coronation One of the bishops whoperformed the ceremony asked the Normans, in French, if they would have Duke William for their king? Theyanswered Yes Another of the bishops put the same question to the Saxons, in English They too answeredYes, with a loud shout The noise being heard by a guard of Norman horse-soldiers outside, was mistaken forresistance on the part of the English The guard instantly set fire to the neighbouring houses, and a tumultensued; in the midst of which the King, being left alone in the Abbey, with a few priests (and they all being in

a terrible fright together), was hurriedly crowned When the crown was placed upon his head, he swore togovern the English as well as the best of their own monarchs I dare say you think, as I do, that if we exceptthe Great Alfred, he might pretty easily have done that

Numbers of the English nobles had been killed in the last disastrous battle Their estates, and the estates of allthe nobles who had fought against him there, King William seized upon, and gave to his own Norman knightsand nobles Many great English families of the present time acquired their English lands in this way, and arevery proud of it

But what is got by force must be maintained by force These nobles were obliged to build castles all overEngland, to defend their new property; and, do what he would, the King could neither soothe nor quell thenation as he wished He gradually introduced the Norman language and the Norman customs; yet, for a longtime the great body of the English remained sullen and revengeful On his going over to Normandy, to visithis subjects there, the oppressions of his half-brother ODO, whom he left in charge of his English kingdom,drove the people mad The men of Kent even invited over, to take possession of Dover, their old enemy CountEustace of Boulogne, who had led the fray when the Dover man was slain at his own fireside The men ofHereford, aided by the Welsh, and commanded by a chief named EDRIC THE WILD, drove the Normans out

of their country Some of those who had been dispossessed of their lands, banded together in the North ofEngland; some, in Scotland; some, in the thick woods and marshes; and whensoever they could fall upon theNormans, or upon the English who had submitted to the Normans, they fought, despoiled, and murdered, likethe desperate outlaws that they were Conspiracies were set on foot for a general massacre of the Normans,like the old massacre of the Danes In short, the English were in a murderous mood all through the kingdom.King William, fearing he might lose his conquest, came back, and tried to pacify the London people by softwords He then set forth to repress the country people by stern deeds Among the towns which he besieged,and where he killed and maimed the inhabitants without any distinction, sparing none, young or old, armed orunarmed, were Oxford, Warwick, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Lincoln, York In all these places, and inmany others, fire and sword worked their utmost horrors, and made the land dreadful to behold The streamsand rivers were discoloured with blood; the sky was blackened with smoke; the fields were wastes of ashes;the waysides were heaped up with dead Such are the fatal results of conquest and ambition! Although

William was a harsh and angry man, I do not suppose that he deliberately meant to work this shocking ruin,when he invaded England But what he had got by the strong hand, he could only keep by the strong hand, and

in so doing he made England a great grave

Two sons of Harold, by name EDMUND and GODWIN, came over from Ireland, with some ships, againstthe Normans, but were defeated This was scarcely done, when the outlaws in the woods so harassed York,that the Governor sent to the King for help The King despatched a general and a large force to occupy thetown of Durham The Bishop of that place met the general outside the town, and warned him not to enter, as

he would be in danger there The general cared nothing for the warning, and went in with all his men Thatnight, on every hill within sight of Durham, signal fires were seen to blaze When the morning dawned, the

English, who had assembled in great strength, forced the gates, rushed into the town, and slew the Normansevery one The English afterwards besought the Danes to come and help them The Danes came, with twohundred and forty ships The outlawed nobles joined them; they captured York, and drove the Normans out ofthat city Then, William bribed the Danes to go away; and took such vengeance on the English, that all theformer fire and sword, smoke and ashes, death and ruin, were nothing compared with it In melancholy songs,and doleful stories, it was still sung and told by cottage fires on winter evenings, a hundred years afterwards,how, in those dreadful days of the Normans, there was not, from the River Humber to the River Tyne, oneinhabited village left, nor one cultivated field - how there was nothing but a dismal ruin, where the humancreatures and the beasts lay dead together.

The outlaws had, at this time, what they called a Camp of Refuge, in the midst of the fens of Cambridgeshire.Protected by those marshy grounds which were difficult of approach, they lay among the reeds and rushes,and were hidden by the mists that rose up from the watery earth Now, there also was, at that time, over thesea in Flanders, an Englishman named HEREWARD, whose father had died in his absence, and whoseproperty had been given to a Norman When he heard of this wrong that had been done him (from such of theexiled English as chanced to wander into that country), he longed for revenge; and joining the outlaws in theircamp of refuge, became their commander He was so good a soldier, that the Normans supposed him to beaided by enchantment William, even after he had made a road three miles in length across the

Cambridgeshire marshes, on purpose to attack this supposed enchanter, thought it necessary to engage an oldlady, who pretended to be a sorceress, to come and do a little enchantment in the royal cause For this purposeshe was pushed on before the troops in a wooden tower; but Hereward very soon disposed of this unfortunatesorceress, by burning her, tower and all The monks of the convent of Ely near at hand, however, who werefond of good living, and who found it very uncomfortable to have the country blockaded and their supplies ofmeat and drink cut off, showed the King a secret way of surprising the camp So Hereward was soon defeated.Whether he afterwards died quietly, or whether he was killed after killing sixteen of the men who attackedhim (as some old rhymes relate that he did), I cannot say His defeat put an end to the Camp of Refuge; and,very soon afterwards, the King, victorious both in Scotland and in England, quelled the last rebellious Englishnoble He then surrounded himself with Norman lords, enriched by the property of English nobles; had a greatsurvey made of all the land in England, which was entered as the property of its new owners, on a roll calledDoomsday Book; obliged the people to put out their fires and candles at a certain hour every night, on theringing of a bell which was called The Curfew; introduced the Norman dresses and manners; made the

Normans masters everywhere, and the English, servants; turned out the English bishops, and put Normans intheir places; and showed himself to be the Conqueror indeed

But, even with his own Normans, he had a restless life They were always hungering and thirsting for theriches of the English; and the more he gave, the more they wanted His priests were as greedy as his soldiers

We know of only one Norman who plainly told his master, the King, that he had come with him to England to

do his duty as a faithful servant, and that property taken by force from other men had no charms for him Hisname was GUILBERT We should not forget his name, for it is good to remember and to honour honest men.Besides all these troubles, William the Conqueror was troubled by quarrels among his sons He had threeliving ROBERT, called CURTHOSE, because of his short legs; WILLIAM, called RUFUS or the Red, fromthe colour of his hair; and HENRY, fond of learning, and called, in the Norman language, BEAUCLERC, orFine-Scholar When Robert grew up, he asked of his father the government of Normandy, which he hadnominally possessed, as a child, under his mother, MATILDA The King refusing to grant it, Robert becamejealous and discontented; and happening one day, while in this temper, to be ridiculed by his brothers, whothrew water on him from a balcony as he was walking before the door, he drew his sword, rushed up- stairs,and was only prevented by the King himself from putting them to death That same night, he hotly departedwith some followers from his father's court, and endeavoured to take the Castle of Rouen by surprise Failing

in this, he shut himself up in another Castle in Normandy, which the King besieged, and where Robert oneday unhorsed and nearly killed him without knowing who he was His submission when he discovered hisfather, and the intercession of the queen and others, reconciled them; but not soundly; for Robert soon strayed

abroad, and went from court to court with his complaints He was a gay, careless, thoughtless fellow, spendingall he got on musicians and dancers; but his mother loved him, and often, against the King's command,

supplied him with money through a messenger named SAMSON At length the incensed King swore hewould tear out Samson's eyes; and Samson, thinking that his only hope of safety was in becoming a monk,became one, went on such errands no more, and kept his eyes in his head

All this time, from the turbulent day of his strange coronation, the Conqueror had been struggling, you see, atany cost of cruelty and bloodshed, to maintain what he had seized All his reign, he struggled still, with thesame object ever before him He was a stern, bold man, and he succeeded in it

He loved money, and was particular in his eating, but he had only leisure to indulge one other passion, andthat was his love of hunting He carried it to such a height that he ordered whole villages and towns to beswept away to make forests for the deer Not satisfied with sixty-eight Royal Forests, he laid waste an

immense district, to form another in Hampshire, called the New Forest The many thousands of miserablepeasants who saw their little houses pulled down, and themselves and children turned into the open countrywithout a shelter, detested him for his merciless addition to their many sufferings; and when, in the

twenty-first year of his reign (which proved to be the last), he went over to Rouen, England was as full ofhatred against him, as if every leaf on every tree in all his Royal Forests had been a curse upon his head In theNew Forest, his son Richard (for he had four sons) had been gored to death by a Stag; and the people said thatthis so cruelly-made Forest would yet be fatal to others of the Conqueror's race

He was engaged in a dispute with the King of France about some territory While he stayed at Rouen,

negotiating with that King, he kept his bed and took medicines: being advised by his physicians to do so, onaccount of having grown to an unwieldy size Word being brought to him that the King of France made light

of this, and joked about it, he swore in a great rage that he should rue his jests He assembled his army,

marched into the disputed territory, burnt - his old way! - the vines, the crops, and fruit, and set the town ofMantes on fire But, in an evil hour; for, as he rode over the hot ruins, his horse, setting his hoofs upon someburning embers, started, threw him forward against the pommel of the saddle, and gave him a mortal hurt Forsix weeks he lay dying in a monastery near Rouen, and then made his will, giving England to William,

Normandy to Robert, and five thousand pounds to Henry And now, his violent deeds lay heavy on his mind

He ordered money to be given to many English churches and monasteries, and - which was much betterrepentance - released his prisoners of state, some of whom had been confined in his dungeons twenty years

It was a September morning, and the sun was rising, when the King was awakened from slumber by the sound

of a church bell 'What bell is that?' he faintly asked They told him it was the bell of the chapel of Saint Mary.'I commend my soul,' said he, 'to Mary!' and died

Think of his name, The Conqueror, and then consider how he lay in death! The moment he was dead, hisphysicians, priests, and nobles, not knowing what contest for the throne might now take place, or what mighthappen in it, hastened away, each man for himself and his own property; the mercenary servants of the courtbegan to rob and plunder; the body of the King, in the indecent strife, was rolled from the bed, and lay alone,for hours, upon the ground O Conqueror, of whom so many great names are proud now, of whom so manygreat names thought nothing then, it were better to have conquered one true heart, than England!

By-and-by, the priests came creeping in with prayers and candles; and a good knight, named HERLUIN,undertook (which no one else would do) to convey the body to Caen, in Normandy, in order that it might beburied in St Stephen's church there, which the Conqueror had founded But fire, of which he had made suchbad use in his life, seemed to follow him of itself in death A great conflagration broke out in the town whenthe body was placed in the church; and those present running out to extinguish the flames, it was once againleft alone

It was not even buried in peace It was about to be let down, in its Royal robes, into a tomb near the high altar,

in presence of a great concourse of people, when a loud voice in the crowd cried out, 'This ground is mine!Upon it, stood my father's house This King despoiled me of both ground and house to build this church Inthe great name of GOD, I here forbid his body to be covered with the earth that is my right!' The priests andbishops present, knowing the speaker's right, and knowing that the King had often denied him justice, paidhim down sixty shillings for the grave Even then, the corpse was not at rest The tomb was too small, andthey tried to force it in It broke, a dreadful smell arose, the people hurried out into the air, and, for the thirdtime, it was left alone.

Where were the Conqueror's three sons, that they were not at their father's burial? Robert was lounging amongminstrels, dancers, and gamesters, in France or Germany Henry was carrying his five thousand pounds safelyaway in a convenient chest he had got made William the Red was hurrying to England, to lay hands upon theRoyal treasure and the crown

CHAPTER IX

- ENGLAND UNDER WILLIAM THE SECOND, CALLED RUFUS

WILLIAM THE RED, in breathless haste, secured the three great forts of Dover, Pevensey, and Hastings, andmade with hot speed for Winchester, where the Royal treasure was kept The treasurer delivering him thekeys, he found that it amounted to sixty thousand pounds in silver, besides gold and jewels Possessed of thiswealth, he soon persuaded the Archbishop of Canterbury to crown him, and became William the Second,King of England

Rufus was no sooner on the throne, than he ordered into prison again the unhappy state captives whom hisfather had set free, and directed a goldsmith to ornament his father's tomb profusely with gold and silver Itwould have been more dutiful in him to have attended the sick Conqueror when he was dying; but Englanditself, like this Red King, who once governed it, has sometimes made expensive tombs for dead men whom ittreated shabbily when they were alive

The King's brother, Robert of Normandy, seeming quite content to be only Duke of that country; and theKing's other brother, Fine- Scholar, being quiet enough with his five thousand pounds in a chest; the Kingflattered himself, we may suppose, with the hope of an easy reign But easy reigns were difficult to have inthose days The turbulent Bishop ODO (who had blessed the Norman army at the Battle of Hastings, and who,

I dare say, took all the credit of the victory to himself) soon began, in concert with some powerful Normannobles, to trouble the Red King

The truth seems to be that this bishop and his friends, who had lands in England and lands in Normandy,wished to hold both under one Sovereign; and greatly preferred a thoughtless good-natured person, such asRobert was, to Rufus; who, though far from being an amiable man in any respect, was keen, and not to beimposed upon They declared in Robert's favour, and retired to their castles (those castles were very

troublesome to kings) in a sullen humour The Red King, seeing the Normans thus falling from him, revengedhimself upon them by appealing to the English; to whom he made a variety of promises, which he nevermeant to perform - in particular, promises to soften the cruelty of the Forest Laws; and who, in return, soaided him with their valour, that ODO was besieged in the Castle of Rochester, and forced to abandon it, and

to depart from England for ever: whereupon the other rebellious Norman nobles were soon reduced andscattered

Then, the Red King went over to Normandy, where the people suffered greatly under the loose rule of DukeRobert The King's object was to seize upon the Duke's dominions This, the Duke, of course, prepared toresist; and miserable war between the two brothers seemed inevitable, when the powerful nobles on bothsides, who had seen so much of war, interfered to prevent it A treaty was made Each of the two brothers

agreed to give up something of his claims, and that the longer-liver of the two should inherit all the dominions

of the other When they had come to this loving understanding, they embraced and joined their forces againstFine- Scholar; who had bought some territory of Robert with a part of his five thousand pounds, and wasconsidered a dangerous individual in consequence

St Michael's Mount, in Normandy (there is another St Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, wonderfully like it),was then, as it is now, a strong place perched upon the top of a high rock, around which, when the tide is in,the sea flows, leaving no road to the mainland In this place, Fine-Scholar shut himself up with his soldiers,and here he was closely besieged by his two brothers At one time, when he was reduced to great distress forwant of water, the generous Robert not only permitted his men to get water, but sent Fine-Scholar wine fromhis own table; and, on being remonstrated with by the Red King, said 'What! shall we let our own brother die

of thirst? Where shall we get another, when he is gone?' At another time, the Red King riding alone on theshore of the bay, looking up at the Castle, was taken by two of Fine- Scholar's men, one of whom was about tokill him, when he cried out, 'Hold, knave! I am the King of England!' The story says that the soldier raisedhim from the ground respectfully and humbly, and that the King took him into his service The story may ormay not be true; but at any rate it is true that Fine-Scholar could not hold out against his united brothers, andthat he abandoned Mount St Michael, and wandered about - as poor and forlorn as other scholars have beensometimes known to be

The Scotch became unquiet in the Red King's time, and were twice defeated - the second time, with the loss oftheir King, Malcolm, and his son The Welsh became unquiet too Against them, Rufus was less successful;for they fought among their native mountains, and did great execution on the King's troops Robert of

Normandy became unquiet too; and, complaining that his brother the King did not faithfully perform his part

of their agreement, took up arms, and obtained assistance from the King of France, whom Rufus, in the end,bought off with vast sums of money England became unquiet too Lord Mowbray, the powerful Earl ofNorthumberland, headed a great conspiracy to depose the King, and to place upon the throne, STEPHEN, theConqueror's near relative The plot was discovered; all the chief conspirators were seized; some were fined,some were put in prison, some were put to death The Earl of Northumberland himself was shut up in adungeon beneath Windsor Castle, where he died, an old man, thirty long years afterwards The Priests inEngland were more unquiet than any other class or power; for the Red King treated them with such smallceremony that he refused to appoint new bishops or archbishops when the old ones died, but kept all thewealth belonging to those offices in his own hands In return for this, the Priests wrote his life when he wasdead, and abused him well I am inclined to think, myself, that there was little to choose between the Priestsand the Red King; that both sides were greedy and designing; and that they were fairly matched

The Red King was false of heart, selfish, covetous, and mean He had a worthy minister in his favourite,Ralph, nicknamed - for almost every famous person had a nickname in those rough days - Flambard, or theFirebrand Once, the King being ill, became penitent, and made ANSELM, a foreign priest and a good man,Archbishop of Canterbury But he no sooner got well again than he repented of his repentance, and persisted

in wrongfully keeping to himself some of the wealth belonging to the archbishopric This led to violentdisputes, which were aggravated by there being in Rome at that time two rival Popes; each of whom declared

he was the only real original infallible Pope, who couldn't make a mistake At last, Anselm, knowing the RedKing's character, and not feeling himself safe in England, asked leave to return abroad The Red King gladlygave it; for he knew that as soon as Anselm was gone, he could begin to store up all the Canterbury moneyagain, for his own use

By such means, and by taxing and oppressing the English people in every possible way, the Red King becamevery rich When he wanted money for any purpose, he raised it by some means or other, and cared nothing forthe injustice he did, or the misery he caused Having the opportunity of buying from Robert the whole duchy

of Normandy for five years, he taxed the English people more than ever, and made the very convents sell theirplate and valuables to supply him with the means to make the purchase But he was as quick and eager inputting down revolt as he was in raising money; for, a part of the Norman people objecting - very naturally, I

think - to being sold in this way, he headed an army against them with all the speed and energy of his father.

He was so impatient, that he embarked for Normandy in a great gale of wind And when the sailors told him itwas dangerous to go to sea in such angry weather, he replied, 'Hoist sail and away! Did you ever hear of aking who was drowned?'

You will wonder how it was that even the careless Robert came to sell his dominions It happened thus It hadlong been the custom for many English people to make journeys to Jerusalem, which were called pilgrimages,

in order that they might pray beside the tomb of Our Saviour there Jerusalem belonging to the Turks, and theTurks hating Christianity, these Christian travellers were often insulted and ill used The Pilgrims bore itpatiently for some time, but at length a remarkable man, of great earnestness and eloquence, called PETERTHE HERMIT, began to preach in various places against the Turks, and to declare that it was the duty of goodChristians to drive away those unbelievers from the tomb of Our Saviour, and to take possession of it, andprotect it An excitement such as the world had never known before was created Thousands and thousands ofmen of all ranks and conditions departed for Jerusalem to make war against the Turks The war is called inhistory the first Crusade, and every Crusader wore a cross marked on his right shoulder

All the Crusaders were not zealous Christians Among them were vast numbers of the restless, idle, profligate,and adventurous spirit of the time Some became Crusaders for the love of change; some, in the hope ofplunder; some, because they had nothing to do at home; some, because they did what the priests told them;some, because they liked to see foreign countries; some, because they were fond of knocking men about, andwould as soon knock a Turk about as a Christian Robert of Normandy may have been influenced by all thesemotives; and by a kind desire, besides, to save the Christian Pilgrims from bad treatment in future He wanted

to raise a number of armed men, and to go to the Crusade He could not do so without money He had nomoney; and he sold his dominions to his brother, the Red King, for five years With the large sum he thusobtained, he fitted out his Crusaders gallantly, and went away to Jerusalem in martial state The Red King,who made money out of everything, stayed at home, busily squeezing more money out of Normans andEnglish

After three years of great hardship and suffering - from shipwreck at sea; from travel in strange lands; fromhunger, thirst, and fever, upon the burning sands of the desert; and from the fury of the Turks - the valiantCrusaders got possession of Our Saviour's tomb The Turks were still resisting and fighting bravely, but thissuccess increased the general desire in Europe to join the Crusade Another great French Duke was proposing

to sell his dominions for a term to the rich Red King, when the Red King's reign came to a sudden and violentend

You have not forgotten the New Forest which the Conqueror made, and which the miserable people whosehomes he had laid waste, so hated The cruelty of the Forest Laws, and the torture and death they broughtupon the peasantry, increased this hatred The poor persecuted country people believed that the New Forestwas enchanted They said that in thunder-storms, and on dark nights, demons appeared, moving beneath thebranches of the gloomy trees They said that a terrible spectre had foretold to Norman hunters that the RedKing should be punished there And now, in the pleasant season of May, when the Red King had reignedalmost thirteen years; and a second Prince of the Conqueror's blood - another Richard, the son of Duke Robert

- was killed by an arrow in this dreaded Forest; the people said that the second time was not the last, and thatthere was another death to come

It was a lonely forest, accursed in the people's hearts for the wicked deeds that had been done to make it; and

no man save the King and his Courtiers and Huntsmen, liked to stray there But, in reality, it was like anyother forest In the spring, the green leaves broke out of the buds; in the summer, flourished heartily, andmade deep shades; in the winter, shrivelled and blew down, and lay in brown heaps on the moss Some treeswere stately, and grew high and strong; some had fallen of themselves; some were felled by the forester's axe;some were hollow, and the rabbits burrowed at their roots; some few were struck by lightning, and stoodwhite and bare There were hill-sides covered with rich fern, on which the morning dew so beautifully

sparkled; there were brooks, where the deer went down to drink, or over which the whole herd bounded,flying from the arrows of the huntsmen; there were sunny glades, and solemn places where but little lightcame through the rustling leaves The songs of the birds in the New Forest were pleasanter to hear than theshouts of fighting men outside; and even when the Red King and his Court came hunting through its solitudes,cursing loud and riding hard, with a jingling of stirrups and bridles and knives and daggers, they did much lessharm there than among the English or Normans, and the stags died (as they lived) far easier than the people.Upon a day in August, the Red King, now reconciled to his brother, Fine-Scholar, came with a great train tohunt in the New Forest Fine-Scholar was of the party They were a merry party, and had lain all night atMalwood-Keep, a hunting-lodge in the forest, where they had made good cheer, both at supper and breakfast,and had drunk a deal of wine The party dispersed in various directions, as the custom of hunters then was.The King took with him only SIR WALTER TYRREL, who was a famous sportsman, and to whom he hadgiven, before they mounted horse that morning, two fine arrows.

The last time the King was ever seen alive, he was riding with Sir Walter Tyrrel, and their dogs were huntingtogether

It was almost night, when a poor charcoal-burner, passing through the forest with his cart, came upon thesolitary body of a dead man, shot with an arrow in the breast, and still bleeding He got it into his cart It wasthe body of the King Shaken and tumbled, with its red beard all whitened with lime and clotted with blood, itwas driven in the cart by the charcoal-burner next day to Winchester Cathedral, where it was received andburied

Sir Walter Tyrrel, who escaped to Normandy, and claimed the protection of the King of France, swore inFrance that the Red King was suddenly shot dead by an arrow from an unseen hand, while they were huntingtogether; that he was fearful of being suspected as the King's murderer; and that he instantly set spurs to hishorse, and fled to the sea-shore Others declared that the King and Sir Walter Tyrrel were hunting in company,

a little before sunset, standing in bushes opposite one another, when a stag came between them That the Kingdrew his bow and took aim, but the string broke That the King then cried, 'Shoot, Walter, in the Devil'sname!' That Sir Walter shot That the arrow glanced against a tree, was turned aside from the stag, and struckthe King from his horse, dead

By whose hand the Red King really fell, and whether that hand despatched the arrow to his breast by accident

or by design, is only known to GOD Some think his brother may have caused him to be killed; but the RedKing had made so many enemies, both among priests and people, that suspicion may reasonably rest upon aless unnatural murderer Men know no more than that he was found dead in the New Forest, which the

suffering people had regarded as a doomed ground for his race

CHAPTER X

- ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE FIRST, CALLED FINE-SCHOLAR

FINE-SCHOLAR, on hearing of the Red King's death, hurried to Winchester with as much speed as Rufushimself had made, to seize the Royal treasure But the keeper of the treasure who had been one of the

hunting-party in the Forest, made haste to Winchester too, and, arriving there at about the same time, refused

to yield it up Upon this, Fine-Scholar drew his sword, and threatened to kill the treasurer; who might havepaid for his fidelity with his life, but that he knew longer resistance to be useless when he found the Princesupported by a company of powerful barons, who declared they were determined to make him King Thetreasurer, therefore, gave up the money and jewels of the Crown: and on the third day after the death of theRed King, being a Sunday, Fine- Scholar stood before the high altar in Westminster Abbey, and made asolemn declaration that he would resign the Church property which his brother had seized; that he would do

no wrong to the nobles; and that he would restore to the people the laws of Edward the Confessor, with all theimprovements of William the Conqueror So began the reign of KING HENRY THE FIRST.

The people were attached to their new King, both because he had known distresses, and because he was anEnglishman by birth and not a Norman To strengthen this last hold upon them, the King wished to marry anEnglish lady; and could think of no other wife than MAUD THE GOOD, the daughter of the King of

Scotland Although this good Princess did not love the King, she was so affected by the representations thenobles made to her of the great charity it would be in her to unite the Norman and Saxon races, and preventhatred and bloodshed between them for the future, that she consented to become his wife After some

disputing among the priests, who said that as she had been in a convent in her youth, and had worn the veil of

a nun, she could not lawfully be married - against which the Princess stated that her aunt, with whom she hadlived in her youth, had indeed sometimes thrown a piece of black stuff over her, but for no other reason thanbecause the nun's veil was the only dress the conquering Normans respected in girl or woman, and not

because she had taken the vows of a nun, which she never had - she was declared free to marry, and was madeKing Henry's Queen A good Queen she was; beautiful, kind-hearted, and worthy of a better husband than theKing

For he was a cunning and unscrupulous man, though firm and clever He cared very little for his word, andtook any means to gain his ends All this is shown in his treatment of his brother Robert - Robert, who hadsuffered him to be refreshed with water, and who had sent him the wine from his own table, when he was shut

up, with the crows flying below him, parched with thirst, in the castle on the top of St Michael's Mount,where his Red brother would have let him die

Before the King began to deal with Robert, he removed and disgraced all the favourites of the late King; whowere for the most part base characters, much detested by the people Flambard, or Firebrand, whom the lateKing had made Bishop of Durham, of all things in the world, Henry imprisoned in the Tower; but Firebrandwas a great joker and a jolly companion, and made himself so popular with his guards that they pretended toknow nothing about a long rope that was sent into his prison at the bottom of a deep flagon of wine Theguards took the wine, and Firebrand took the rope; with which, when they were fast asleep, he let himselfdown from a window in the night, and so got cleverly aboard ship and away to Normandy

Now Robert, when his brother Fine-Scholar came to the throne, was still absent in the Holy Land Henrypretended that Robert had been made Sovereign of that country; and he had been away so long, that theignorant people believed it But, behold, when Henry had been some time King of England, Robert camehome to Normandy; having leisurely returned from Jerusalem through Italy, in which beautiful country he hadenjoyed himself very much, and had married a lady as beautiful as itself! In Normandy, he found Firebrandwaiting to urge him to assert his claim to the English crown, and declare war against King Henry This, aftergreat loss of time in feasting and dancing with his beautiful Italian wife among his Norman friends, he at lastdid

The English in general were on King Henry's side, though many of the Normans were on Robert's But theEnglish sailors deserted the King, and took a great part of the English fleet over to Normandy; so that Robertcame to invade this country in no foreign vessels, but in English ships The virtuous Anselm, however, whomHenry had invited back from abroad, and made Archbishop of Canterbury, was steadfast in the King's cause;and it was so well supported that the two armies, instead of fighting, made a peace Poor Robert, who trustedanybody and everybody, readily trusted his brother, the King; and agreed to go home and receive a pensionfrom England, on condition that all his followers were fully pardoned This the King very faithfully promised,but Robert was no sooner gone than he began to punish them

Among them was the Earl of Shrewsbury, who, on being summoned by the King to answer to five-and-fortyaccusations, rode away to one of his strong castles, shut himself up therein, called around him his tenants andvassals, and fought for his liberty, but was defeated and banished Robert, with all his faults, was so true to his

word, that when he first heard of this nobleman having risen against his brother, he laid waste the Earl ofShrewsbury's estates in Normandy, to show the King that he would favour no breach of their treaty Finding,

on better information, afterwards, that the Earl's only crime was having been his friend, he came over toEngland, in his old thoughtless, warm-hearted way, to intercede with the King, and remind him of the solemnpromise to pardon all his followers

This confidence might have put the false King to the blush, but it did not Pretending to be very friendly, he sosurrounded his brother with spies and traps, that Robert, who was quite in his power, had nothing for it but torenounce his pension and escape while he could Getting home to Normandy, and understanding the Kingbetter now, he naturally allied himself with his old friend the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had still thirty castles

in that country This was exactly what Henry wanted He immediately declared that Robert had broken thetreaty, and next year invaded Normandy

He pretended that he came to deliver the Normans, at their own request, from his brother's misrule There isreason to fear that his misrule was bad enough; for his beautiful wife had died, leaving him with an infant son,and his court was again so careless, dissipated, and ill-regulated, that it was said he sometimes lay in bed of aday for want of clothes to put on - his attendants having stolen all his dresses But he headed his army like abrave prince and a gallant soldier, though he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by King Henry, with fourhundred of his Knights Among them was poor harmless Edgar Atheling, who loved Robert well Edgar wasnot important enough to be severe with The King afterwards gave him a small pension, which he lived uponand died upon, in peace, among the quiet woods and fields of England

And Robert - poor, kind, generous, wasteful, heedless Robert, with so many faults, and yet with virtues thatmight have made a better and a happier man - what was the end of him? If the King had had the magnanimity

to say with a kind air, 'Brother, tell me, before these noblemen, that from this time you will be my faithfulfollower and friend, and never raise your hand against me or my forces more!' he might have trusted Robert tothe death But the King was not a magnanimous man He sentenced his brother to be confined for life in one

of the Royal Castles In the beginning of his imprisonment, he was allowed to ride out, guarded; but he oneday broke away from his guard and galloped of He had the evil fortune to ride into a swamp, where his horsestuck fast and he was taken When the King heard of it he ordered him to be blinded, which was done byputting a red-hot metal basin on his eyes

And so, in darkness and in prison, many years, he thought of all his past life, of the time he had wasted, of thetreasure he had squandered, of the opportunities he had lost, of the youth he had thrown away, of the talents

he had neglected Sometimes, on fine autumn mornings, he would sit and think of the old hunting parties inthe free Forest, where he had been the foremost and the gayest Sometimes, in the still nights, he would wake,and mourn for the many nights that had stolen past him at the gaming-table; sometimes, would seem to hear,upon the melancholy wind, the old songs of the minstrels; sometimes, would dream, in his blindness, of thelight and glitter of the Norman Court Many and many a time, he groped back, in his fancy, to Jerusalem,where he had fought so well; or, at the head of his brave companions, bowed his feathered helmet to theshouts of welcome greeting him in Italy, and seemed again to walk among the sunny vineyards, or on theshore of the blue sea, with his lovely wife And then, thinking of her grave, and of his fatherless boy, he wouldstretch out his solitary arms and weep

At length, one day, there lay in prison, dead, with cruel and disfiguring scars upon his eyelids, bandaged fromhis jailer's sight, but on which the eternal Heavens looked down, a worn old man of eighty He had once beenRobert of Normandy Pity him!

At the time when Robert of Normandy was taken prisoner by his brother, Robert's little son was only fiveyears old This child was taken, too, and carried before the King, sobbing and crying; for, young as he was, heknew he had good reason to be afraid of his Royal uncle The King was not much accustomed to pity thosewho were in his power, but his cold heart seemed for the moment to soften towards the boy He was observed

to make a great effort, as if to prevent himself from being cruel, and ordered the child to be taken away;whereupon a certain Baron, who had married a daughter of Duke Robert's (by name, Helie of Saint Saen),took charge of him, tenderly The King's gentleness did not last long Before two years were over, he sentmessengers to this lord's Castle to seize the child and bring him away The Baron was not there at the time,but his servants were faithful, and carried the boy off in his sleep and hid him When the Baron came home,and was told what the King had done, he took the child abroad, and, leading him by the hand, went from King

to King and from Court to Court, relating how the child had a claim to the throne of England, and how hisuncle the King, knowing that he had that claim, would have murdered him, perhaps, but for his escape

The youth and innocence of the pretty little WILLIAM FITZ-ROBERT (for that was his name) made himmany friends at that time When he became a young man, the King of France, uniting with the French Counts

of Anjou and Flanders, supported his cause against the King of England, and took many of the King's townsand castles in Normandy But, King Henry, artful and cunning always, bribed some of William's friends withmoney, some with promises, some with power He bought off the Count of Anjou, by promising to marry hiseldest son, also named WILLIAM, to the Count's daughter; and indeed the whole trust of this King's life was

in such bargains, and he believed (as many another King has done since, and as one King did in France a verylittle time ago) that every man's truth and honour can be bought at some price For all this, he was so afraid ofWilliam Fitz-Robert and his friends, that, for a long time, he believed his life to be in danger; and never laydown to sleep, even in his palace surrounded by his guards, without having a sword and buckler at his

to be educated in the country of her future husband

And now his Queen, Maud the Good, unhappily died It was a sad thought for that gentle lady, that the onlyhope with which she had married a man whom she had never loved - the hope of reconciling the Norman andEnglish races - had failed At the very time of her death, Normandy and all France was in arms against

England; for, so soon as his last danger was over, King Henry had been false to all the French powers he hadpromised, bribed, and bought, and they had naturally united against him After some fighting, however, inwhich few suffered but the unhappy common people (who always suffered, whatsoever was the matter), hebegan to promise, bribe, and buy again; and by those means, and by the help of the Pope, who exerted himself

to save more bloodshed, and by solemnly declaring, over and over again, that he really was in earnest thistime, and would keep his word, the King made peace

One of the first consequences of this peace was, that the King went over to Normandy with his son PrinceWilliam and a great retinue, to have the Prince acknowledged as his successor by the Norman Nobles, and tocontract the promised marriage (this was one of the many promises the King had broken) between him and thedaughter of the Count of Anjou Both these things were triumphantly done, with great show and rejoicing; and

on the twenty-fifth of November, in the year one thousand one hundred and twenty, the whole retinue

prepared to embark at the Port of Barfleur, for the voyage home

On that day, and at that place, there came to the King, Fitz- Stephen, a sea-captain, and said:

'My liege, my father served your father all his life, upon the sea He steered the ship with the golden boy uponthe prow, in which your father sailed to conquer England I beseech you to grant me the same office I have afair vessel in the harbour here, called The White Ship, manned by fifty sailors of renown I pray you, Sire, tolet your servant have the honour of steering you in The White Ship to England!'

'I am sorry, friend,' replied the King, 'that my vessel is already chosen, and that I cannot (therefore) sail with

the son of the man who served my father But the Prince and all his company shall go along with you, in thefair White Ship, manned by the fifty sailors of renown.'

An hour or two afterwards, the King set sail in the vessel he had chosen, accompanied by other vessels, and,sailing all night with a fair and gentle wind, arrived upon the coast of England in the morning While it wasyet night, the people in some of those ships heard a faint wild cry come over the sea, and wondered what itwas

Now, the Prince was a dissolute, debauched young man of eighteen, who bore no love to the English, and haddeclared that when he came to the throne he would yoke them to the plough like oxen He went aboard TheWhite Ship, with one hundred and forty youthful Nobles like himself, among whom were eighteen nobleladies of the highest rank All this gay company, with their servants and the fifty sailors, made three hundredsouls aboard the fair White Ship

'Give three casks of wine, Fitz-Stephen,' said the Prince, 'to the fifty sailors of renown! My father the King hassailed out of the harbour What time is there to make merry here, and yet reach England with the rest?'

'Prince!' said Fitz-Stephen, 'before morning, my fifty and The White Ship shall overtake the swiftest vessel inattendance on your father the King, if we sail at midnight!'

Then the Prince commanded to make merry; and the sailors drank out the three casks of wine; and the Princeand all the noble company danced in the moonlight on the deck of The White Ship

When, at last, she shot out of the harbour of Barfleur, there was not a sober seaman on board But the sailswere all set, and the oars all going merrily Fitz-Stephen had the helm The gay young nobles and the beautifulladies, wrapped in mantles of various bright colours to protect them from the cold, talked, laughed, and sang.The Prince encouraged the fifty sailors to row harder yet, for the honour of The White Ship

Crash! A terrific cry broke from three hundred hearts It was the cry the people in the distant vessels of theKing heard faintly on the water The White Ship had struck upon a rock - was filling - going down!

Fitz-Stephen hurried the Prince into a boat, with some few Nobles 'Push off,' he whispered; 'and row to land

It is not far, and the sea is smooth The rest of us must die.'

But, as they rowed away, fast, from the sinking ship, the Prince heard the voice of his sister MARIE, theCountess of Perche, calling for help He never in his life had been so good as he was then He cried in anagony, 'Row back at any risk! I cannot bear to leave her!'

They rowed back As the Prince held out his arms to catch his sister, such numbers leaped in, that the boat wasoverset And in the same instant The White Ship went down

Only two men floated They both clung to the main yard of the ship, which had broken from the mast, andnow supported them One asked the other who he was? He said, 'I am a nobleman, GODFREY by name, theson of GILBERT DE L'AIGLE And you?' said he 'I am BEROLD, a poor butcher of Rouen,' was the answer.Then, they said together, 'Lord be merciful to us both!' and tried to encourage one another, as they drifted inthe cold benumbing sea on that unfortunate November night

By-and-by, another man came swimming towards them, whom they knew, when he pushed aside his long wethair, to be Fitz-Stephen 'Where is the Prince?' said he 'Gone! Gone!' the two cried together 'Neither he, norhis brother, nor his sister, nor the King's niece, nor her brother, nor any one of all the brave three hundred,noble or commoner, except we three, has risen above the water!' Fitz- Stephen, with a ghastly face, cried,'Woe! woe, to me!' and sunk to the bottom

The other two clung to the yard for some hours At length the young noble said faintly, 'I am exhausted, andchilled with the cold, and can hold no longer Farewell, good friend! God preserve you!' So, he dropped andsunk; and of all the brilliant crowd, the poor Butcher of Rouen alone was saved In the morning, some

fishermen saw him floating in his sheep-skin coat, and got him into their boat - the sole relater of the dismaltale

For three days, no one dared to carry the intelligence to the King At length, they sent into his presence a littleboy, who, weeping bitterly, and kneeling at his feet, told him that The White Ship was lost with all on board.The King fell to the ground like a dead man, and never, never afterwards, was seen to smile

But he plotted again, and promised again, and bribed and bought again, in his old deceitful way Having noson to succeed him, after all his pains ('The Prince will never yoke us to the plough, now!' said the Englishpeople), he took a second wife - ADELAIS or ALICE, a duke's daughter, and the Pope's niece Having nomore children, however, he proposed to the Barons to swear that they would recognise as his successor, hisdaughter Matilda, whom, as she was now a widow, he married to the eldest son of the Count of Anjou,

GEOFFREY, surnamed PLANTAGENET, from a custom he had of wearing a sprig of flowering broom(called Genˆt in French) in his cap for a feather As one false man usually makes many, and as a false King, inparticular, is pretty certain to make a false Court, the Barons took the oath about the succession of Matilda(and her children after her), twice over, without in the least intending to keep it The King was now relievedfrom any remaining fears of William Fitz-Robert, by his death in the Monastery of St Omer, in France, attwenty-six years old, of a pike-wound in the hand And as Matilda gave birth to three sons, he thought thesuccession to the throne secure

He spent most of the latter part of his life, which was troubled by family quarrels, in Normandy, to be nearMatilda When he had reigned upward of thirty-five years, and was sixty-seven years old, he died of anindigestion and fever, brought on by eating, when he was far from well, of a fish called Lamprey, againstwhich he had often been cautioned by his physicians His remains were brought over to Reading Abbey to beburied

You may perhaps hear the cunning and promise-breaking of King Henry the First, called 'policy' by somepeople, and 'diplomacy' by others Neither of these fine words will in the least mean that it was true; andnothing that is not true can possibly be good

His greatest merit, that I know of, was his love of learning - I should have given him greater credit even forthat, if it had been strong enough to induce him to spare the eyes of a certain poet he once took prisoner, whowas a knight besides But he ordered the poet's eyes to be torn from his head, because he had laughed at him

in his verses; and the poet, in the pain of that torture, dashed out his own brains against his prison wall KingHenry the First was avaricious, revengeful, and so false, that I suppose a man never lived whose word wasless to be relied upon

CHAPTER XI

- ENGLAND UNDER MATILDA AND STEPHEN

THE King was no sooner dead than all the plans and schemes he had laboured at so long, and lied so muchfor, crumbled away like a hollow heap of sand STEPHEN, whom he had never mistrusted or suspected,started up to claim the throne

Stephen was the son of ADELA, the Conqueror's daughter, married to the Count of Blois To Stephen, and tohis brother HENRY, the late King had been liberal; making Henry Bishop of Winchester, and finding a goodmarriage for Stephen, and much enriching him This did not prevent Stephen from hastily producing a false